Citizens
For Legitimate Governmentis a multi-partisan
activist group established to expose the Bush
coup d'etat, and to oppose the Bush
occupation in all of its manifestations.

January
2006 Archives

500
detainees at Guantánamo four years on 11 Jan 2006 The human
rights group Amnesty International marked the "fourth anniversary" of
the first detainees arriving at Guantánamo Bay today by publishing more
allegations of torture at the US detention centre. Amnesty claimed more
than 500 detainees were still being held there and again called for
the closure of the prison camp at the US naval base in Cuba.

Guantanamo
military trials resume
11 January 2006 The military tribunal of a Yemeni man [Ali Hamza al
Bahlul] held at the US naval base at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba, has resumed...
A separate panel will start hearing the case of 19-year-old Canadian
national Omar Ahmed Khadr. He was 15 when captured in Afghanistan accused
of throwing a grenade which killed a US army medic. The tribunals are
presided over by a panel of military officers but do not come under
US or international law.

Guantanamo
detainee taken before US military tribunal 11 Jan 2006 A US
military commission began a pre-trial hearing today for a Yemeni man...
Two US soldiers guided Ali Hamza Ahmad Sulayman al Bahlul into the courtroom
on this military base on the eastern tip of Cuba, where some 500 people
captured in the US war on [of] terror
are detained. Some have been held as long as four years.

Guantanamo
Detainee Says Will Boycott Hearing 11 Jan 2006 A U.S. military
commission began a pretrial hearing Wednesday for a Yemeni man who was
accused of being Osama bin Laden's bodyguard and is charged with conspiracy.
Ali Hamza Ahmad Sulayman al Bahlul said he would boycott the hearings,
even if he was forced to be present...

EU
parliament to launch CIA probe: lawmaker 11 Jan 2006 Political
leaders of the European Parliament will give the green light on Thursday
for an investigation into allegations that the CIA operated prisons
in the European Union, one leader told Reuters.

CIA
document 'must be followed up' 11 Jan 2006 The head of a European
investigation into alleged CIA prisons in Europe said the purported
Egyptian government document naming countries where such prisons existed
is a new lead which must be followed up.

Swiss
govt says CIA prisons press leak was a crime 11 Jan 2006 The
Swiss government condemned the leaking of an intelligence services document
about secret US government prisons in Europe as a blow to the country's
reputation and a crime. [NO, the CRIMES are the US government's secret
prisons!]

NSA
Whistleblower Alleges Illegal Spying --Former Employee Admits
to Being a Source for The New York Times 10 Jan 2006 Russell Tice, a
longtime insider at the National Security Agency, is now a whistleblower
the agency would like to keep quiet. For 20 years, Tice worked in the
shadows as he helped the United States spy on other people's conversations
around the world. "I specialized in what's called special access programs,"
Tice said of his job. "We called them 'black world' programs and operations."

Israelis
plan pre-emptive strike on Iran 10 Jan 2006 Israel is updating
plans for a pre-emptive strike on Iran's nuclear facilities which could
be launched as soon as the end of March, according to military and intelligence
sources.

Roadside
bomb kills three U.S. soldiers in Iraq 11 Jan 2006 'Insurgents'
detonated a roadside bomb near a U.S. military patrol in the flashpoint
city of Fallujah on Wednesday, killing three U.S. soldiers and wounding
another, one witness said.

Missile
Defense Program Moves Forward 11 Jan 2006 The Missile Defense
[sic] Agency continues to move forward... In December, the Missile Defense
Agency placed its eighth interceptor missile into an underground silo
at Fort Greely, Alaska. Two more interceptors already have been emplaced
at Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif.

Florida
investigating boot-camp death 11 Jan 2006 A Florida legislator
is calling on the state to close its military-style boot camps for juvenile
delinquents after a 14-year-old boy died just hours after entering one
of the facilities.

Other
counties look at all-mail votingSacramento might derail any dreams of reform 11 Jan 2006 Even
as Alameda County decided Tuesday to lobby for an all vote-by-mail primary
in June, local elections officials in a dozen other California counties
were talking about the same thing.

Alito
denies involvement in Princeton alumni group 11 Jan 2006 Supreme
Court nominee Samuel Alito said Wednesday that he listed his membership
in a controversial [racist, sexist] Princeton University alumni group
because he was applying for a political job with the Reagan administration.

Alito
demurs when asked if Roe v. Wade is settled law 11 Jan 2006
In tense exchanges with Democratic senators Wednesday, Supreme Court
nominee Samuel Alito refused to declare that Roe v. Wade is settled
law and stopped short of statements that Chief Justice John G. Roberts
made before becoming a judge and that he reaffirmed during his confirmation
hearings last September.

Sen.
Schumer: Alito would vote to overturn Roe --Democrat says no
decision has been made regarding filibuster 11 Jan 2006 Sen. Charles
Schumer, D-New York, in an interview with CNN: "As you know I questioned
him pretty hard on Roe v. Wade. I came to a conclusion that in all likelihood
he would vote to overturn. That was increased this morning by Senator
Durbin's questioning, made it -- you know, it seemed even more so."

Graham's
Behind-the-Scenes Coaching of Alito Could Violate Senate Ethics Rules
By Faiz 09 Jan 2006 "'On Thursday, Sen. Lindsey Graham of South
Carolina, one of the 'gang of 14' who sits on Judiciary, joined a so-called
moot court session at the White House.' Coaching a judicial nominee
behind-the-scenes is not the proper role for a Judiciary Committee member
who must subsequently sit in judgment on that nominee. Indeed, it could
be a violation of the ethical duties of a senator."

Sources:
Two lawmakers could face charges in Abramoff probe --Rep. Ney
among a half dozen who could face charges 11 Jan 2006 Up to a half dozen
people, including two members of Congress, could face charges after
high-powered lobbyist Jack Abramoff's plea deal with the Justice Department,
sources with knowledge of the investigation tell CNN.

Head
of SEC Finance Division Resigns 11 Jan 2006 The head of the
corporation finance division at the Securities and Exchange Commission
is leaving the agency, the SEC announced Wednesday, adding another high-level
vacancy to several others that must be filled.

New
Orleans unveils controversial rebuilding plan 11 Jan 2006 New
Orleans officials on Wednesday unveiled a controversial recovery plan
giving residents four months to prove they will rebuild in the devastated
city before their neighbourhoods could be declared off-limits to redevelopment.

New
Orleans Residents Show Anger at Forum 11 Jan 2006 Angry residents
expressed frustration Wednesday at the debut of rebuilding proposals
for this devastated city, taking aim at a suggested four-month moratorium
on new building permits in areas heavily flooded by Hurricane Katrina.

Opposition
Surging Against EPA's Proposed Toxics Reporting Cutbacks (bushgreenwatch.org)
11 Jan 2006 "Some 50,000 public comments have poured into the EPA
since it announced last fall a proposal to cut back its Toxic Release
Inventory (TRI), the 20-year old program which has reported annually
on the amounts of toxic pollution released and disposed."

Blumenthal
demands FERC documents regulators say are already public 11
Jan 2006 (CT) Attorney General Richard Blumenthal demanded the release
of engineering documents for a proposed Long Island Sound fuel terminal
Wednesday, though federal regulators said the records are already available
to anyone who asks for them. Blumenthal, in a letter to the Federal
Energy Regulatory Commission, said the commission improperly sealed
the design and engineering report for Broadwater Energy's proposed $700
million liquefied natural gas terminal.

Numerous
faulty safety checks found Sago --Mine was repeat offender,
inspectors said 11 Jan 2006 Managers of the Sago Mine repeatedly
ignored or simply missed hazardous roof conditions and dangerous buildups
of combustible materials during required safety checks, according to
federal records released Tuesday. Federal inspectors cited Sago over
and over for serious violations of roof control rules, explosion prevention
measures and other safety lapses.

Bird
flu 'spiralling out of control' 12 Jan 2006 The deadly bird
flu virus may be getting more effective at infecting humans, the World
Health Organisation believes, as experts warned that the disease was
spiralling out of control among poultry in Turkey and posed "a serious
threat" to neighbouring countries.

Frog
Killer Is Linked to Global Warming 11 Jan 2006 Scientists studying
a fast-dwindling genus of colorful harlequin frogs on misty mountainsides
in Central and South America are reporting today that global warming
is combining with a spreading fungus to kill off many species.

Whole
Foods Commits to Wind Energy 10 Jan 2006 Natural-food grocer
Whole Foods Market Inc. said Tuesday it will rely on wind energy for
all of its electricity needs, making it the largest corporate user of
renewable energy in the United States.

*****

The
electrifying transcript:"If
terrorism means unjustified aggression, illegal wars and torture, international
torture, yes, then indeed George Bush is a terrorist." --Michael
Rectenwald, on MSNBC's 'Scarborough Country,' 09 Jan 2006. "JOE
SCARBOROUGH, HOST: Is he—is George Bush a terrorist?MICHAEL
RECTENWALD, PH.D., CITIZENS FOR LEGITIMATE
GOVERNMENT: Well, let's define terrorism. If terrorism means unjustified
aggression, illegal wars and torture, international torture, yes, then
indeed George Bush is a terrorist... SCARBOROUGH: So, who is George
Bush terrorizing? RECTENWALD: It was an illegal war, and, therefore,
he's a terrorist. SCARBOROUGH: It's not an illegal war. RECTENWALD:
Plus, he's torturing more people around the world than al Qaeda, by
far. That's a fact... RECTENWALD: Let me ask you a question, Joe.
Why was George Bush Sr. sitting with bin Laden's half-brother [link]
on 9/11? Can you answer that?"[To
view video of the segment, click on the 'Scarborough
Country' homepage, scroll down the right-hand side of the page,
and click on: "Harry Belafonte Calls The President [sic] A Terrorist."
"Jan. 9: Why would Harry Belafonte, famous singer and the face
of UNICEF call President Bush a terrorist? MSNBC's Joe Scarborough looks
into why Belafonte made such comments and whether or not Americans really
care. Guests include Michael Rectenwald from Citizens for Legitimate
Government."]

Prosecutor
says teen should be tried by military tribunal 10 Jan 2006 Guantánamo
Bay, Cuba --The U.S. military lawyer prosecuting Omar Khadr said Tuesday
that the Canadian teenager is no fresh-faced innocent but a terrorist
murderer [?!?] who deserves to be convicted by a special military tribunal.

Guantanamo
prison camp off limits during hearing for Khadr 10 Jan 2006
. It's possible to tour the prison camp but that's not happening on
this trip, one devoted to the first military tribunal hearings in more
than a year... Canadian teenager Omar Khadr's case is also contentious
because he was only 15 when he was captured
by U.S. forces in Afghanistan after a firefight that killed
an American medic.

Military
trial panel for Khadr criticized 10 Jan 2006 Omar Khadr, the
Canadian accused of murdering a U.S. soldier in Afghanistan, was a juvenile
-- only 15 years old at the time of the firefight -- and shouldn't face
trial by military commission, according to human-rights activists converging
yesterday on this U.S. naval base where 500 terrorism suspects have
been held in a legal limbo for years.

CIA
faces new secret jails claim 10 Jan 2006 The CIA kept 23 people
in a secret prison in Romania and maintained similar facilities in Bulgaria,
Ukraine, Macedonia and Kosovo, according to allegations contained in
a leaked Swiss intelligence report.

Swiss
military probes alleged CIA prisons in Europe 10 Jan 2006 The
Swiss military said Monday that it had launched an investigation into
the Sonntags Blick weekly, which reported the country's secret services
knew the CIA detained 23 terror suspects in a detention center in Romania.

New
inquest opens into CIA leak 10 Jan 2006 The Federal Prosecutor's
Office has announced it will investigate the leak and publication of
secret information on alleged CIA prisons in Europe. The principal aim
of the inquest, which comes a day after military prosecutors opened
an investigation into a newspaper editor and two journalists, is to
find the source of the leak. [They should be *investigating* the
CIA's violations of international law, NOT the 'source of the leak.']

Two
men face trial over "Jazeera bombing" leak 10 Jan 2006 A court
on Tuesday ordered two men to face trial on charges of leaking a memo
that a lawmaker said described a plan by U.S. President George W. Bush
to bomb Arabic television station Al Jazeera. [They should be *investigating*
Bush's violations of international law, NOT the 'source of the leak.']

US
troops seize award-winning Iraqi journalist 09 Jan 2006 American
troops in Baghdad yesterday blasted their way into the home of an Iraqi
journalist working for the Guardian and Channel 4, firing bullets into
the bedroom where he was sleeping with his wife and children. Ali Fadhil,
who two months ago won the Foreign Press Association young journalist
of the year award, was hooded and taken for questioning.

Pulling
out troops 'catastrophic' 10 Jan 2006 (AU) Foreign Minister
Alexander Downer today rejected an immediate withdrawal of troops from
Iraq, telling US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice that Australian
forces would leave only when Iraqis could defend themselves.

U.S.
airstrikes in Iraq could intensify 10 Jan 2006 U.S. warplanes
have carried out hundreds of airstrikes in Iraq in the past two years,
bombing and strafing civilians ['insurgent fighters and targets'] almost
daily. And the air war, which has gone largely unnoticed at home, could
intensify once American ground forces start to withdraw.

U.S.
troops build wall of sand around Iraqi town 10 Jan 2006 U.S.
soldiers fed up with almost daily bomb attacks on their patrols near
Iraq's main oil refinery are taking drastic measures... they're walling
in an entire town. Army bulldozers have begun building giant sand embankments
around Siniya, a town of 50,000 close to the northern oil refining city
of Baiji. When finished it will be 10 km (6 miles) long and more than
2 meters (nearly 8 feet) high. [I wonder how much US taxpayers are
paying for this Halliburton/Blackwater USA boondoggle?]

US
sees Iraqi oil production choked for years
10 Jan 2006 Iraq has vast hydrocarbon potential that could rival major
producers such as Saudi Arabia and Russia, but United States government
analysts are predicting that Iraqi oil production development will remain
thwarted for years to come. Its enormous reserves of an estimated 115-billion
barrels of proven crude are the world's third largest after those of
the Saudi Kingdom and Canada.

Oops!"We
can't account for some $2.6 trillion." Testimony before
the House Appropriations Committee: Fiscal Year 2002 --Defense Budget
Request, As Given by Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld, Chairman
of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Hugh Shelton, and Comptroller Dov
Zakheim, July 16, 2001. "Sec. Rumsfeld: ...I know Dr. Zakheim's
been trying to hire CPAs because the financial systems of the department
are so snarled up that we can't account for some $2.6 trillion in transactions
that exist, if that's believable."

Bush
Issues Stark Warning to Democrats on Iraq Debate 10 Jan 2006
Dictator Bush issued an unusually stark warning to Democrats today about
how to conduct the debate on Iraq as midterm elections approach, declaring
that Americans know the difference "between honest critics" and those
"who claim that we acted in Iraq because of oil, or because of Israel,
or because we misled the American people." [There he goes, in typical
Orwellian fashion, Big Brother wants the real truth cut out and replaced
with the words of 'honest critics' (read, LIARS). It is amazing that
he would directly cite the actual truth and deny it at the same time.
It's a pre-emptive strike, again!]

Bush
nominee 'believes in an all-powerful presidency'
11 Jan 2006 Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee accused President
Bush's latest Supreme Court nominee of being far too deferential to
executive power and invariably favouring the state over the rights of
the individual. Edward Kennedy, the party's liberal standard bearer,
told Judge Samuel Alito as the committee got down to serious questioning
yesterday: "Your record shows you believe in the supremacy of the
executive branch and an almost all-powerful presidency."

Few
Americans Expect bin Laden's Capture in 2006 10 Jan 2006 Many
adults in the U.S. believe the leader of al-Qaeda will not be successfully
detained this year, according to a poll by Gallup released by CNN and
USA Today. 68 per cent of respondents believe it is unlikely that Osama
bin Laden will be captured or killed. [Right, Bush needs him out
there to justify waging his war on (of) terror.]

Report:
TSA Screener Spending Uncontrolled
09 Jan 2006 In the rush to hire airport screeners after the Sept. 11
terrorist attacks, the newly formed Transportation Security Administration
spent as much as $143,432 per screener on recruitment in Topeka, Kan.,
according to a report released Monday.

FEMA's
'Crazy' Generators 09 Jan 2006 The Federal Emergency Management
Agency's program reimburses residents in areas hit by hurricanes...
"I see people making $200,000 a year putting in for a rebate for a generator,"
Don Dipetrillo, fire chief of Davie, told the South Florida Sun-Sentinel
of Fort Lauderdale last month.

Terrorist
Cheney's secret 'Energy Task Force' chickens come home to roost:Winter
Brings Bleak Options for Poor --Despite the soaring costs
of home heating oil, federal aid has flat-lined. Across New England,
state officials scramble for solutions. 10 Jan 2006 Winter has barely
begun, and the soaring cost of home heating oil has already forced the
poor to cut back on food, medicine and clothing — a plight known in
the frigid Northeast as "heat or eat." Heating
oil costs doubled in the last two years and climbed 21% during November
and December, the Department of Energy said.

Illinois
Lawmakers Urge Chicago to Accept Venezuela's Discounted CITGO Diesel
Offer 04 Jan 2006 U.S. Congressman Luis Gutierrez, Chicago Aldermen
Billy Ocasio, Ed Smith, State Representatives Cynthia Soto, Marlow Colvin
and Larry McKeon, along with other 20 organized labor leaders and community
activists, joined forces today to urge the Chicago Transit Authority
(CTA) to reconsider an offer by CITGO Petroleum Corporation to provide
the city with discounted diesel fuel for its public buses.

Global
oil prices 'to stay high' 09 Jan 2006 Opec member Indonesia
has said it sees no need for the oil producing cartel to cut output
because prices are expected to remain high into the spring.

Health
care spending up 7.9 percent in 2004 09 Jan 2006 U.S. health
care spending increased 7.9 percent to nearly $1.9 trillion in 2004,
once again outpacing wage growth and inflation on its way to chewing
up a record 16 percent of the nation's gross domestic product, according
to a new federal report.

Battlefield
Florida
--A Chat with Lance deHaven-Smith --Al Gore really did beat
George W. Bush in 2000. Six years on, this is still a problem? By
Julian Pecquet (Florida State University, from Research in Review
Magazine) Fall/Winter 2005 "Turns out, those chads only distracted
attention from much more grievous breakdowns during the 2000 election.
At least that’s what longtime Florida political observer Lance deHaven-Smith
believes. His most recent book, The Battle for Florida (University
Press of Florida, 2005), looks at the twilight of democracy in Ancient
Greece and draws disturbing parallels with the institutions in Florida
and the nation during the 2000 election and up until today."

Create
an e-annoyance, go to jail By Declan McCullagh 09 Jan 2006 "Annoying
someone via the Internet is now a federal crime. It's no joke. Last
Thursday, President [sic] Bush signed into law a prohibition on posting
annoying Web messages or sending annoying e-mail messages without disclosing
your true identity."

NJ
lawmakers vote to suspend death penalty 09 Jan 2006 New Jersey
lawmakers approved a moratorium on the death penalty on Monday, becoming
the first U.S. state legislature to block executions since the Supreme
Court reinstated the punishment in 1976.

Outbreaks
of bird flu gather speed 10 Jan 2006 Bird flu is relentlessly
heading for Britain, experts warned yesterday, as five more children
in Turkey were found to have the disease.

'High
chance' of bird flu reaching Britain 10 Jan 2006 Bird flu took
another step towards Britain last night as three more people tested
positive for the deadly H5N1 strain in Turkey. The virus has already
claimed the lives of three people in the city of Ankara and scientists
say it is inevitable that it will eventually spread to Britain.

New
Turkish bird flu infection confirmed 10 Jan 2006 Another person
in Turkey today tested positive for the virulent H5N1 strain of bird
flu, a health ministry official said. It brings the number of people
to have contracted the disease in the country to 15.

Clean
energy is life or death for planet: Australia 10 Jan 2006 Breakthroughs
on cleaner energy technology are a matter of life and death for the
planet, Australia warned on Wednesday ahead of a meeting of six nations
to tackle climate change without sacrificing economic growth.

*****

IRS
Said to Improperly Restrict Access 08 Jan 2006 The Bush administration
has illegally stopped making public detailed tax enforcement data, which
has been used to show which kinds of taxpayers get the most and toughest
audits, a noted tax researcher says.

Egyptian
fax points to CIA jail in Romania 09 Jan 2006 A fax by the Egyptian
foreign minister appears to confirm the existence of CIA prisons on
European territory, according to the Swiss weekly, SonntagsBlick.

CIA
Director Goss targeting leaks 08 Jan 2006 CIA Director Porter
Goss is redoubling efforts to stop information leaks among staff members.
Time Magazine reports
that at staff meetings last week, CIA managers at the agency's Langley,
Va., headquarters told employees the leaking was out of control and
needed to stop.

The
CIA Says, "Shhh..." 08 Jan 2006 Angered by recent leaks of information
about sensitive intelligence operations, CIA Director Porter Goss is
redoubling efforts to get his spooks to keep their mouths shut. At staff
meetings last week, CIA managers at the agency's Langley, Va., headquarters
told employees that the leaking had got out of control and needed to
stop.

NSA
spied on UN diplomats in push for invasion of Iraq By Norman
Solomon 08 Jan 2006 "Despite all the news accounts and punditry
since The New York Times published its Dec. 16 bombshell about the US
National Security Agency's domestic spying, the media coverage has made
virtually no mention of the fact that the Bush administration used the
NSA to spy on UN diplomats in New York before the invasion of Iraq.
That spying had nothing to do with protecting the United States from
a terrorist attack."

Feingold
says impeachment a possibility 08 Jan 2006 U.S. Sen. Russ Feingold,
D-Wis., says he would not rule out calling for impeachment of pResident
Bush over secret wiretaps and spying on U.S. citizens.

MPs
leaked Bush plan to hit al-Jazeera --Transcript of meeting with
Blair passed to US contact --Official and aide already charged over
document 09 Jan 2006 Two Labour MPs have defied the Official Secrets
Act by passing on the contents of a secret British document revealing
how Dictator George Bush wanted to bomb the Arabic TV station, al-Jazeera.

Suicide
attack at Interior Ministry kills 29 --Deadly four-day period
also claims lives of 28 American troops in Iraq 09 Jan 2006 Two
suicide bombers wearing police uniforms and holding security passes
tried to attack National Police Day celebrations [?!?] Monday,
with police shooting one to death and the other exploding his vest,
killing 29 people, authorities said. The U.S. ambassador and Iraq’s
interior and defense ministers were in attendance but far from the attacks.
[Of course they were. Why would Al-CIAduh-in-Iraq kill top US officials?]

US
raid on Iraq mosque sparks Sunni anger 09 Jan 2006 Sunni Arab
political parties in Iraq condemned the weekend U.S. raid on the Baghdad
offices of an influential Islamic organization, accusing the U.S. military
of targeting Muslim clergy and violating a place of worship.

Urgent
Appeal to Save Iraq's Academics (brusselstribunal.org) "A
little known aspect of the tragedy engulfing Iraq is the systematic
liquidation of the country's academics. Even according to conservative
estimates, over 250 educators have been assassinated, and many hundreds
more have disappeared... This situation is a mirror of the occupation
as a whole: a catastrophe of staggering proportions unfolding in a climate
of criminal disregard. As an occupying power, and under international
humanitarian law, final responsibility for protecting Iraqi citizens,
including academics, lies with the United States. With this petition
we want to break the silence."

Prisoner
Dies at Abu Ghraib 09 Jan 2006 A 56-year-old detainee died Jan.
7 of complications from an apparent stroke [likely induced by his US-tormentors]
at Abu Ghraib prison in Baghdad, military officials reported today.

Bremer
warns Dutch to back Afghan mission 09 Jan 2006 A decision not
to send more troops in Afghanistan would be damaging for Dutch interests
in the US, former American diplomat Paul Bremer III warned on Monday.

Taliban
Leader Vows Jihad Against U.S. 09 Jan 2006 Fugitive Taliban
leader Mullah Mohammad Omar, in a message to mark the three-day Muslim
festival of Eid al-Adha which starts in Afghanistan on Tuesday, reiterated
his call for jihad, or holy war, against the United States. His public
vow for more attacks against U.S. forces in Afghanistan comes a day
after Afghan [US-installed] President Hamid Karzai suggested he "get
in touch" if he wanted peace.

Taleban
head offered olive branch 08 Jan 2006 Afghan President Hamid
Karzai has said he would be happy for Taleban leader Mullah Mohammad
Omar to contact him with a view to reconciliation.

Karzai
Invites Contact With Taliban Head 08 Jan 2006 US-installed Afghan
'President' Hamid Karzai said Sunday that a few hundred Taliban fighters
have reconciled with the government and suggested militant leader Mullah
Omar should "get in touch" if he wanted to talk peace.

9/11
As 'Reichstag fire' Raised to White House Press Secretary (White
House Press Briefing) 05 Jan 2006 "Q Scott, a few days ago, conservative
columnist Paul Craig Roberts had a column where he compared the administration's
use of September 11th with Hitler and the Reichstag fire as a blanket
cover for extraordinary measures. Now, this is coming from a conservative
columnist; this is not Nancy Pelosi. Doesn't this concern you that these
kind of reactions have come up especially with all the revelations about
the NSA and spying?"

Court
denies DeLay's request to drop charges 09 Jan 2006 Texas' highest
criminal court today rejected U.S. Rep. Tom DeLay's request to throw
out criminal indictments against him or order an immediate trial on
a charge of money laundering.

Controversial
lobbyist had close contact with Bush team 09 Jan 2006 In pResident
Bush's first 10 months, GOP fundraiser Jack Abramoff and his lobbying
team logged nearly 200 contacts with the new administration as
they pressed for friendly hires at federal agencies and sought to keep
the Northern Mariana Islands exempt from the minimum wage and other
laws, records show.

Dems
try to link Alito with wiretapping, detention 09 Jan 2006 Judge
Samuel Alito's quest for a pivotal seat on the U.S. Supreme Court opened
today with Senate Democrats attempting to link the conservative judge's
nomination with pResident Bush's wiretapping and detention policies.
"In an era when the White House is abusing power, is excusing and authorizing
torture, and is spying on American citizens, I find Judge Alito's support
for an all-powerful executive branch to be genuinely troubling,'' Sen.
Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., said in his opening statement at the Senate
Judiciary Committee's confirmation hearing. Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt.,
the committee's ranking Democrat, said the public is entitled to know
whether Alito would "allow the government to intrude on Americans' personal
privacy and freedoms ... at a time when this administration seems intent
on accumulating unchecked power.''

Senators
Sould Press Alito on Bush v. Gore by John Nichols 09 Jan 2006
"Ask the nominee [Samuel Alito] how he would have ruled in the
case of Bush v. Gore. Does he agree that the court was right
to intervene, for the first time in history, to stop the counting of
the ballots that could have determined the result of a presidential
contest? ...Does he believe that Justices Antonin Scalia, whose sons
were associated with firms that represented George W. Bush's campaign,
and Clarence Thomas, whose wife was working with Bush's transition team,
should have recused themselves from the deliberations?"

Ministers
Say They Blessed Seats Ahead of Alito Hearing 05 Jan 2006 Insisting
that God "certainly needs to be involved" in the Supreme Court confirmation
process, three Christian ministers today blessed the doors of the hearing
room where Senate Judiciary Committee members will begin considering
the nomination of Judge Samuel Alito on Monday.

U.S.
Vice President Cheney Released From Hospital, Aide Says 09 Jan
2006 U.S. Vice President [sic] Dick Cheney was released from the hospital
early today after experiencing shortness of breath, an aide said. Cheney,
64, was taken to George Washington University Hospital in Washington
at 3 a.m. local time, the vice president's spokesman said in a telephone
interview.

US
Vice President taken to hospital 09 Jan 2006 The US Vice President
[sic] Dick Cheney was taken to George Washington Hospital in Washington
today experiencing shortness of breath.

Deconstructing
Cheney By James Carroll 07 Nov 2005 "The indictment of
the vice president's chief of staff for perjury and obstruction of justice
is an occasion to consider just how damaging the long public career
of Richard Cheney has been to the United States... At world-shaping
moments across a generation, Cheney reacted with an instinctive, This
is war! He helped turn the War on Poverty into a war on the poor. He
helped keep the Cold War going longer than it had to, and when it ended
(because of initiatives taken by the other side), Cheney refused to
believe it. To keep the US war machine up and running, he found a new
justification just in time."

Pharmacists
Overwhelmed By New Medicare Drug Program 09 Jan 2006 The start
of the Medicare prescription drug plan for seniors has been difficult
for pharmacists in Connecticut. Pharmacists are helping bewildered beneficiaries,
dispensing medications at their own expense and are working out problems
with overwhelmed insurance plans. The program began Jan. 1. "This
has been catastrophic," said Frederick Vegliante, 77, a pharmacist
and former owner of Bella Vista Pharmacy and Surgical Supplies Inc.
in New Haven.

Dow
tops 11,000 for first time since 9/11 --Nasdaq advances to
5-year high 09 Jan 2006 The Dow Jones industrial average closed
above 11,000 Monday for the first time since before the 9/11 terrorist
attacks, buoyed by a rally that has sent stock prices soaring through
the first five sessions of 2006.

Bird
Flu Reports Multiply in Turkey, Faster Than Expected 09 Jan
2006 A flurry of new reports of avian influenza in humans and animals
emerged Sunday from various parts of Turkey, and international health
officials said they had come to believe that the disease had been simmering
in the eastern part of the country for months, even though it was reported
there only in late December.

Polar
Bears Face New Toxic Threat: Flame Retardants 09 Jan 2006 Already
imperiled by melting ice and a brew of toxic chemicals, polar bears
throughout the Arctic, particularly in remote dens near the North Pole,
face an additional threat as flame retardants originating largely in
the United States are building up in their bodies, according to an international
team of wildlife scientists.

*****

"It's
nothing short of breathtaking."Bush
quietly undercuts laws with bill-signing statement 08 Jan 2006
Dictator Bush agreed with great fanfare last month to accept a ban on
torture, but he later quietly reserved the right to ignore it, even
as he signed it into law. Bush said he would interpret the new law in
keeping with his expansive view of presidential power. He did it by
issuing a bill-signing statement -- a little-noticed device that
has become a favorite tool of presidential power in the Bush White House.
In fact, Bush has used signing statements to reject, revise or put his
spin on more than 500 legislative provisions... "It's nothing short
of breathtaking,'' said Phillip Cooper, a professor of public administration
at Portland State University. "In every case, the White House has
interpreted presidential authority as broadly as possible, interpreted
legislative authority as narrowly as possible and pre-empted the judiciary."

Impeach
Blair over Iraq: UK general 08 Jan 2006 A leading British Army
officer believes Prime Minister Tony Blair should be impeached for his
role in the war in Iraq, the Mail on Sunday reported. General
Sir Michael Rose, a former UN commander in Bosnia, was quoted by the
right-of-centre Mail on Sunday as saying: "I think the politicians
should be held to account ... my view is that Blair should be impeached.
That would prevent the politicians treating quite so carelessly the
subject of taking a country into war."

Scandal
of force-fed prisoners
--Hunger strikers are tied down and fed through nasal tubes, admits
Guantánamo Bay doctor 08 Jan 2006 New details have emerged of how
the growing number of prisoners on hunger strike at Guantánamo Bay are
being tied down and force-fed through tubes pushed down their nasal
passages into their stomachs to 'keep them alive' [torture them].

European
Parliament urged to probe CIA secret prisons 07 Jan 2006 The
European Parliament (EP) can play an important role in the investigation
into the reports on the existence of CIA detention flights and centers
in the EU by getting information from EU member states, the EP's Human
Rights Sub-committee was told.

Swiss
may have known about secret CIA prisons 08 Jan 2006 The Swiss
intelligence community has allegedly been aware of secret CIA prisons
in eastern Europe for nearly two months, according to leaked documents
by the SonntagsBlick newspaper.

Officials
probe CIA denials on prisoner planes landing in Ireland 08 Jan
2006 Officials at the Department of Foreign Affairs have amassed a large
volume of documents on the CIA's 'extraordinary rendition' programme,
amid repeated claims that the US is using Irish airports for covert
operations in its so-called 'war on terror'.

John
Yoo Says President Bush Can Legally Torture Children Posted
at revcom.us 12 Dec 2005 "John Yoo, author of the infamous legal
memo justifying Presidential powers to torture US captives around the
world, couldn't escape torture victims (World Can't Wait activists)
when he appeared in Chicago on Dec. 1. in a debate with Doug Cassel,
long time human rights legal scholar and professor at Notre Dame. 'Cassel:
If the president deems that he's got to torture somebody, including
by crushing the testicles of the person's child, there is no law that
can stop him? Yoo: No treaty Cassel: Also no law by Congress -- that
is what you wrote in the August 2002 memo... Yoo: I think it depends
on why the President thinks he needs to do that.'"

Specter
Wants AG's Testimony on Spying 08 Jan 2006 The chairman of the
Senate Judiciary Committee said Sunday he has asked Attorney General
Alberto Gonzales to testify during open hearings on the legality of
the Bush administration's domestic spying program.

Poll:
Most Want Court OK for Gov't Taps 08 Jan 2006 A majority of
Americans want the Bush administration to get court approval before
eavesdropping on people inside the United States, even if those calls
might involve suspected terrorists, an AP-Ipsos poll shows.

The
lie detector you'll never know is there
05 Jan 2006 The US Department of Defense has revealed plans to develop
a lie detector that can be used without the subject knowing they are
being assessed... The Remote Personnel Assessment (RPA) device will
train a beam on "moving and non-cooperative
subjects", the DoD proposal says, and use the reflected signal
to calculate their pulse, respiration rate and changes in electrical
conductance, known as the "galvanic skin response".

Ex-military
director speaks out --Peace activist says U.S. using uranium
in warfare 08 Jan 2006 A former military director on Saturday accused
the United States of war crimes for its use of depleted uranium in warfare.

Iraqi
Farmers Aren't Celebrating World Food Day (vegsource.com) 11
Nov 2004 "As part of sweeping 'economic restructuring' implemented
by the Bush Administration in Iraq, Iraqi farmers will no longer be
permitted to save their seeds. Instead, they will be forced to buy seeds
from US corporations -- which can include seeds the Iraqis themselves
developed over hundreds of years. That is because in recent years, transnational
corporations have patented and now own many seed varieties originated
or developed by indigenous peoples. In a short time, Iraq will be living
under the new American credo: Pay Monsanto, or starve."

Pentagon
said to OK rocket-launch joint venture 07 Jan 2006 The U.S.
Defense Department has conditionally approved a controversial plan that
would let Lockheed Martin Corp. and Boeing Co. -- its top suppliers
-- merge their government-rocket launch ventures, a well-placed industry
consultant said on Saturday.

Officials
Focus on a 2nd Firm Tied to DeLay 08 Jan 2006 Having secured
a guilty plea from the lobbyist Jack Abramoff, prosecutors are entering
a new phase of the corruption investigation in Washington and are focusing
on a lobbying firm that has even closer ties to Tom DeLay, the former
House majority leader who is under scrutiny in the scandal.

British
lawyers linked to $1m payment for favours at US Congress 08
Jan 2006 A British law firm is at the centre of the investigation into
America's biggest influence-buying scandal in decades. The London-based
solicitors, James & Sarch, channelled $1 million (£565,000) into a conservative
United States pressure group linked to Jack Abramoff, the disgraced
lobbyist.

Democrats
charge GOP has corrupted Congress 08 Jan 2006 Democrats accused
Republican congressional leaders of corrupting the government... "Under
Republican guidance, America has truly been put up for sale to the highest
bidder," Rep. Louise Slaughter, D-N.Y., said in her party's weekly radio
address on Saturday.

Judge
Stops New Orleans Bulldozing --Federal Judge Threatens to
Throw New Orleans City Attorney In Jail "If One More Home is Bulldozed
Down" In The 9th Ward By Greg Szymanski 07 Jan 2006 "A federal
judge Friday threatened to throw the New Orleans City Attorney in jail
if 'one home was bulldozed down' in violation of temporary restraining
order obtained by activists and lower income homeowners, trying to save
their property from what is playing out to be an illegal government
land grab."

Doomed
miner chronicled 10 hours after blast --Jim Bennett left hour-by-hour
account of miners' deaths underground 07 Jan 2006 In the darkness of
the Sago Mine, one of 12 trapped coal miners scrawled a timeline detailing
how he was alive but losing air at least 10 hours after an underground
explosion, his daughter said Saturday.

Lock
them up to die - prison bird flu plan 08 Jan 2006 Government
planning documents reveal that the 'most dangerous' prisoners would
be locked away and left to take their chances and the dead buried in
mass graves, if an Asian bird flu epidemic hits New Zealand's prison
population. Entire prisons would be sealed - nobody would be allowed
in or out for up to six weeks - and mass graves would be dug in prison
compounds to dispose of bodies. The proposals, details of which were
obtained by the Sunday Star-Times, are part of Corrections Department
contingency plans to deal with an Asian bird flu pandemic hitting New
Zealand and its 7500 prison population. [What is Bush's prison bird
flu plan?]

Bird
flu plan for prisons draws civil liberty concerns 08 Jan 2006
A reported proposal that the 'most dangerous' prisoners [?!?] should
remain locked away and left to take their chances if an Asian bird flu
pandemic hit New Zealand has been attacked by civil libertarians.

Human
bird flu cases reach Turkish capital 08 Jan 2006 Three Turks
tested positive for a deadly strain of bird flu in the capital Ankara
on Sunday, a new stage in the westward sweep of the disease from its
east Asian origins toward major economic centres in Turkey and Europe.

Deadly
bird flu outbreak spreads 08 Jan 2006 Bird flu in humans appears
to be spreading in Turkey, with preliminary tests for the deadly H5N1
strain returned positive in three people in Ankara, the first suspected
cases outside the eastern city of Van, where at least two siblings have
died in the past week.

Iraq
war could cost US over $2 trillion, says Nobel prize-winning economist
--Economists say official estimates are far too low --New calculation
takes in dead and injured soldiers 07 Jan 2006 The real cost to the
US of the Iraq war is likely to be between $1 trillion and $2 trillion
(£1.1 trillion), up to 10 times more than previously thought, according
to a report written by a Nobel prize-winning economist and a Harvard
budget expert.

Extra
Armor Could Have Saved Many Lives, Study Shows 06 Jan 2006 A
secret Pentagon study has found that at least 80 percent of the marines
who have been killed in Iraq from wounds to their upper body could have
survived if they had extra body armor. That armor has been available
since 2003 but until recently the Pentagon has largely declined to supply
it to troops despite calls from the field for additional protection,
according to military officials.

Fake
al-Qaeda video again?
--CLG reader, Johnny Asia, unearths an oddity with the most recent
'al-Qaeda' video. 07 Jan 2006 "In this handout
image made from video and released by IntelCenter, al-Qaeda's No.
2, Ayman al-Zawahri, is allegedly seen in a videotape which aired Friday,
January 6, 2005. Al-Zawahri states that the United States' decision
to withdraw some troops from Iraq represented 'the victory of Islam'
and called on Muslims to attack oil sites. The banner reads, 'Even as
I offer my condolences to my Muslim Ummah'. Ummah is translated to nation
in Arabic and is a reference to the earthquake in Pakistan. The logo,
bottom left of image, is 'As-Sahab,' an institute that produces al-Qaeda
videos. IntelCenter
is a government contractor that does support work for the U.S. intelligence
community. (AP Photo/Intel Center, HO)."

Americans
Said to Meet Rebels, Exploiting Rift 07 Jan 2006 American officials
are talking with local Iraqi 'insurgent' leaders to exploit a rift that
has opened between homegrown insurgents and radical groups like 'Al
Qaeda,' and to draw the local leaders into the political process, according
to a Western diplomat, an Iraqi political leader and an Iraqi insurgent
leader.

Suicide
bombing targets Iraqi police 07 Jan 2006 A suicide car bomb
has hit a passing Iraqi police patrol in south-east Baghdad, wounding
four police commandos and five civilians. Police say the attack took
place in the city's New Baghdad district.

Six
Iraqis Hurt in Mosul Attack 07 Jan 2006 Six Iraqi civilians,
including three children, were injured along with four police yesterday
when a car bomber attacked an Iraqi police patrol in Mosul.

US
journalist seized in Iraq 07 Jan 2006 A female American journalist
has been kidnapped in Baghdad and her driver has been killed. Immediately
after the incident, American and Iraqi troops sealed off the area. [The
US terror squads in Iraq are busy little bees!]

Germany's
Merkel says Guantanamo should be shut 07 Jan 2006 German Chancellor
Angela Merkel, in an interview published days before her first visit
to the United States, said Washington should close its Guantanamo Bay
prison camp and find other ways of dealing with terror suspects.

'Iran
Could be Stopped with Sanctions' 07 Jan 2006 Israeli Prime Minister
Ariel Sharon said in his last interview before becoming ill that if
the international suppression over Iran continues Tehran's nuclear studies
may be prevented.

Sharon's
chances of survival slim, say doctors --Second bout of surgery
after new bleeding in brain --Colleagues comfort one another outside
hospital 07 Jan 2006 Ariel Sharon, the Israeli prime minister, yesterday
underwent emergency surgery for the second time after doctors discovered
evidence of new bleeding in his brain.

Report
Rebuts Bush on Spying --Domestic Action's Legality Challenged
07 Jan 2006 A report by Congress's research arm concluded yesterday
that the administration's justification for the warrantless eavesdropping
authorized by Dictator Bush conflicts with existing law and hinges on
weak legal arguments.

Basis
for Spying in U.S. Is Doubted 07 Jan 2006 Dictator Bush's rationale
for eavesdropping on Americans without warrants rests on questionable
legal ground, and Congress does not appear to have given him the authority
to order the surveillance, said a Congressional analysis released Friday.

Unpatriotic
Spying By Michael Hammerschlag 07 Jan 2006 "This is an
administration that has viciously slandered any critics, practiced dishonesty
on an industrial level, started an unnecessary disastrous war, transferred
trillions of dollars from the poor, middle class, and unborn to the
rich in tax cuts and corporate payoffs, and now has engaged in massive
spying of its critics. The only possible purpose for this [unlimited
spying] is intimidation and injury... and the potential for abuse is
infinite."

Homeland
Security opening private mail06
Jan 2006 Last month, Grant Goodman, an 81-year-old retired University
of Kansas history professor, received a letter from his friend in the
Philippines that had been opened and resealed with a strip of dark green
tape bearing the words "by Border Protection" and carrying
the official Homeland Security seal. "I had no idea (Homeland Security)
would open personal letters," Goodman told MSNBC.com in a phone
interview. "That’s why I alerted the media. I thought it should
be known publicly that this is going on," he said.

MSNBC
Poll:Do you support allowing Customs and Border Protection
to open private correspondence sent to U.S. citizens from abroad?
*49759 responses --Yes, the government needs this authority to protect
us from possible terrorist attacks. 17%;
No, this is an unwarranted intrusion on personal privacy and constitutionally
protected rights. 83% [Poll snapshot,
18:27 EST 07 Jan 2006]

VeriChip
files IPO to fund RFID chips for humans 03 Jan 2006 Human RFID
chipmaker VeriChip Corp. said it filed for an initial public offering.
A subsidiary of Applied Digital Solutions Inc., VeriChip has come under
fire recently by privacy advocates who claim the company's human RFID
chips could be unfairly, even dubiously used to collect information
about people.

All
four British Foreign Office documents (villagemagazine.ie) 05
Jan 2006 "In this week's Village, we exclusively publish British
Foreign Office documents which reveal American and British complicity
in torture. In the magazine, two of the documents are published, here
are all four of them."

Torture
05 Jan 2006 British Foreign Office documents reveal US and UK complicity
in torture and raise further questions on the use of Shannon by the
CIA. By David Shanks "The former British ambassador to Uzbekistan,
Craig Murray, has released documents which show US and UK complicity
in the torture of terror suspects in Uzbekistan. The documents have
not been published officially in the UK because of restrictions under
the Official Secrets Act."

Venezuela
to Expand Fuel Discounts to U.S. 07 Jan 2006 Venezuela said
Friday it will expand a program to provide discounted home heating oil
to low-income Americans, bringing savings to some Indian tribes in Maine.

Kin
blame 9/11 debris for death of NYPD detective07 Jan 2006 A
retired NYPD detective, who worked more than 450 hours at Ground Zero,
died Thursday from brain and respiratory complications that his family
insists were linked to the World Trade Center cleanup. While autopsy
results are pending, union officials maintain James Zadroga's death
is the first post-9/11 death of a city officer linked to hazardous material
from Ground Zero.

Lawsuit
leveled at electronic voting 07 Jan 2006 (PA) State Sen. Jim
Ferlo has joined a group of voting rights activists in a lawsuit aimed
at forcing Westmoreland County to seek more public input before it purchases
a new generation of touch-screen voting machines for the upcoming May
primary election. The lawsuit, filed yesterday, could have statewide
implications. It argues that, under the Pennsylvania Constitution, all
67 counties must let voters pick their preferred model of electronic
machines through ballot questions.

Arcata
calls for impeachment 06 Jan 2006 (CA) A split City Council
passed a resolution demanding the impeachment or resignation of pResident
Bush and Vice pResident Dick Cheney, citing violations of international
and constitutional law.

DeLay
relinquishes House majority leader post 07 Jan 2006 U.S. Rep.
Tom DeLay, now under indictment in Texas and tainted by a corruption
scandal, told fellow House of Representatives Republicans on Saturday
that he will not try to reclaim his job as majority leader.

Prosecutor
Broadens DeLay Inquiry --Data on GOP Donation to U.S. Family
Network Demanded 06 Jan 2006 The Texas prosecutor who secured an
indictment of Rep. Tom DeLay (R-Tex.) on money-laundering charges broadened
the scope of his inquiry into election spending yesterday, demanding
documents related to funds that passed through a nonprofit organization,
the U.S. Family Network.

Disgraced
Congressman 'Wore a Wire' 06 Jan 2006 In a week when legislators
are focused on the question of who else might be brought down by ex-lobbyist
Jack Abramoff’s cooperation with prosecutors as he seeks lenient sentencing
over his two federal guilty pleas this week, sources tell TIME that
in a separate investigation, ex-Rep. Duke Cunningham wore a wire to
help investigators gather evidence against others just before copping
his own plea.

'Friends'
of Jack Abramoff --List of who may be implicated in scandal
could be extensive By Keith Olbermann 06 Jan 2006 "That the
Bush White House would even want the media focusing on how it is doing
in Iraq perhaps a sign of just how much it does not want anyone talking
about Jack Abramoff. Jack Abramoff has already pled guilty and many
politicians, including President [sic] Bush, are rushing to return money
linked to the disgraced former lobbyist. In Mr. Bush‘s case, donating
$6,000 of the total of $300 million he raised in 2004 to the American
Heart Association."

Wis.
Governor Vetoes Abortion-Pain Bill
07 Jan 2006 Gov. Jim Doyle (D) on Friday vetoed a bill that would have
forced doctors to tell women seeking abortions after their fifth month
of pregnancy that their fetuses could suffer pain. Doyle said there
is no evidence conclusively proving when a fetus can feel pain. The
Republican-controlled Legislature should not be allowed to decide scientific
fact, he said.

Special
'Bush Bypass' Issue 06
Jan 2006 In a one-day snapshot of news from the Bush regime, the U.S.
government (or Bush himself) has/is bypassing the the Constitution,
the Senate, the house, the torture ban, and Nato.

NSA
whistleblower asks to testify 05 Jan 2006 A former National
Security Agency official wants to tell Congress about electronic intelligence
programs that he asserts were carried out illegally by the NSA and the
Defense Intelligence Agency. Russ Tice, a whistleblower who was dismissed
from the NSA last year, stated in letters to the House and Senate intelligence
committees that he is prepared to testify about highly classified Special
Access Programs, or SAPs, that were improperly carried out by both the
NSA and the DIA. "I intend to report to Congress probable unlawful and
unconstitutional acts conducted while I was an intelligence officer
with the National Security Agency and with the Defense Intelligence
Agency," Mr. Tice stated in the Dec. 16 letters, copies of which were
obtained by The Washington Times.

Government
Web sites are keeping an eye on you (Part I) 05 Jan 2006 Dozens
of federal agencies are tracking visits to U.S. government Web sites
in violation of long-standing rules designed to protect online privacy,
a CNET News.com investigation shows. From the Air Force to the Treasury
Department, government agencies are using either "Web
bugs" or permanent cookies to monitor their visitors' behavior,
even though federal law restricts the practice.

Congress'
hands caught in the cookie jar (Part II) 06 Jan 2006 Dozens
of U.S. senators are quietly tracking visits to their Web sites even
though they have publicly pledged not to do so. Sixty-six politicians
in the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives are setting permanent
Web cookies even though at least 23 of them have promised not to use
the online tracking technique, a CNET News.com investigation shows.

CNN's
Bizarre Response to Amanpour Spy Story 06 Jan 2006 Yesterday,
we [nyc.indymedia.org] reported on the flurry of internet speculation
that the NSA was spying in CNN correspondent Christiane Amanpour. Questions
remain a day later. By Chris Anderson

3
GOP senators blast Bush bid to bypass torture
ban --Reject assertion he has right to waive rules to protect
US security 05 Jan 2006 Three key Republican senators yesterday
condemned pResident Bush's assertion that his powers as commander in
chief give him the authority to bypass
a new law restricting the use of torture when interrogating detainees.

Bush
could bypass new torture ban 04
Jan 2006 When Dictator Bush last week signed the bill outlawing the
torture of detainees, he quietly reserved the right to bypass
the law under his powers as commander in chief [thief]. After approving
the bill last Friday, Bush issued a ''signing statement" -- an official
document in which a president lays out his interpretation of a new law
-- declaring that he will view the interrogation limits in the context
of his broader powers to protect national security. This means Bush
believes he can waive the restrictions, the White House and legal specialists
said.

Bush
appears to contradict anti-torture pledge 05 Jan 2006 Dictator
George W. Bush has asserted that he retains the right to authorise abuse
of detainees under extreme circumstances, despite agreeing to legislation
last month that explicitly prohibited such treatment.

Bush
bypasses Congress to appoint Negroponte
aide 05 Jan 2006 Dictator George W. Bush bypassed
Congress to appoint a new top legal officer on intelligence matters
whose nomination had been blocked by a Senate protest over detainees,
officials said on Thursday. Benjamin Powell, who until recently had
advised Bush on intelligence issues, including reform, was appointed
general counsel to U.S. intelligence chief John Negroponte on January
4 while Congress was in adjournment, officials said.

Terror
Ruling Favors the U.S. 06 Jan 2006 A British man accused of
playing a role in a 1999 plan to establish a terrorist training camp
in Bly, Ore., may be extradited to the United States, a judge ruled
Thursday. Magistrate's Court Judge Timothy Workman rejected arguments
raised by attorneys for Haroon Rashid Aswat that the U.S. might declare
the suspect an "enemy combatant" and send him to its prison at Guantanamo
Bay, Cuba, to face a military tribunal.

'Insurgents'
Kill 140 as Iraq Clashes Escalate 06 Jan 2006 Khalid Saadi later
learned that his brother was dead, one of more than 140 people killed
in attacks Thursday in Iraq. The violence, which included a suicide
bombing in Karbala, contributed to one of the bloodiest days since the
U.S.-led invasion of the country in 2003.

Six
Servicemembers Killed in Four Incidents in Iraq 06 Jan 2006
Three Marines and a soldier assigned to the 2nd Marine Division, 2nd
Marine Expeditionary Force (Forward), were killed yesterday in attacks
in Fallujah and Ramadi, while another two soldiers were killed in Baghdad
the same day, military officials in Iraq reported.

11
U.S. Troops Killed in One Day in Iraq 06 Jan 2006 The U.S. military
on Friday announced the deaths of six more American troops killed in
the recent barrage of violence that has swept Iraq, bringing to 11 the
number of troops killed on the same day.

Violence
in Iraq verges on civil war 07 Jan 2006 The wave of violence
in Iraq this week that has killed more than 240 people, making it one
of the darkest periods since the US-led invasion in 2003, has sparked
real fears of a civil war. Twin suicide bombings and a string of other
attacks on Thursday killed more than 120 people, including 11 US soldiers.

Iraq
not on verge of civil war: US commander 07 Jan 2006 This week's
surge in violence is "an anomaly" and Iraq is not on the verge of civil
war, the top US commander there said on Friday, after one of the country's
bloodiest days since the fall of Saddam Hussein.

Bremer
says U.S. did not expect insurgency in Iraq[Hello, McFly?]
06 Jan 2006 Paul Bremer, who led the U.S. civilian occupation authority
in Iraq after the 2003 invasion, has admitted the United States did
not anticipate the insurgency in the country, NBC Television said on
Friday.

Zawahri
says US defeated in Iraq: Jazeera TV
06 Jan 2006 Al CIAduh's deputy leader
Ayman al-Zawahri said in a video aired on Friday that U.S. plans to
withdraw troops from Iraq meant Washington had been defeated by the
Muslims. [GOPredators will be saying: Ergo, if you want the U.S.
troops out of Iraq, you therefore agree with al Qaeda terrorist, Ayman
al-Zawarhri.]

US
ambassador escapes Taliban suicide bomb 06 Jan 2006 The US ambassador
fled a central Afghan town after a Taliban suicide bomber killed 10
people and wounded 50, further stoking fears of an Iraqi influence on
the escalating 'insurgency' [resistance movement.]

US
sees 'coalitions of the willing' as best ally
04 Jan 2006 Building on its experience in Iraq, the Bush regime says
it wants to be able to form "coalitions of the willing" more efficiently
for dealing with future conflicts rather than turning to existing but
unreliable institutional alliances [?!?] such as Nato.

Supreme
Court Will Hear Police Search Case 06 Jan 2006 The Supreme Court
said Friday it would clarify when police can enter a home without a
search warrant, in a case involving Utah officers who watched a fight
through a window.

God
license plate gets initial nod --'In God We Trust' idea passes
House panel, will go to the floor 06 Jan 2006 For the second straight
year, Indiana Rep. Woody Burton, R-Greenwood, is pushing for creating
an "In God We Trust" license plate. The House passed the bill in last
year's session, but it stalled in the Senate.

Court
orders tuition vouchers halted 06 Jan 2006 In a stunning blow
to the education policies that Jeb Bush has made the centerpiece of
his governorship, the Florida Supreme Court struck down the state's
tuition voucher program Thursday, saying it violates the state Constitution
because it diverts public money to private schools.

House
G.O.P. Calls for DeLay Replacement 06 Jan 2006 Embattled Rep.
Tom DeLay's hopes of reclaiming his post as House majority leader suffered
a setback Friday as fellow Republicans called for new leadership in
the midst of a congressional corruption scandal.

Japan
struggles to cope with record snowfall 06 Jan 2006 Japan was
bracing for more snow on Friday after some of the heaviest snowfall
on record... Almost 4 metres (13 ft) of snow has piled up in the worst-hit
areas of Niigata near the Japan Sea coast, though the snowiest season
of the year is yet to come. Television pictures showed drifts burying
the ground floors of houses and almost covering street lamps.

*****

White
House Told NSA Briefings Broke Law
05 Jan 2006 The top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee told
pResident Bush Wednesday that the White House broke the law by withholding
information from the full congressional oversight committees about a
new domestic surveillance program.

Bush's
war on professionals By Sidney Blumenthal 05 Jan 2006 "New
ranges of secret government are emerging from the fog of war. The latest
disclosure, by the New York Times, of domestic surveillance by the National
Security Agency performed by evasion of the special Foreign Intelligence
Surveillance Court surfaces a vast hidden realm. But the NSA spying
is not an isolated island of policy; it is connected to the mainland
of Bush's expansive new national security apparatus."

Supreme
Court Says U.S. Can Move Padilla 05 Jan 2006 The Supreme Court
agreed Wednesday to let the military transfer accused "enemy combatant''
Jose Padilla to Miami to face criminal charges in at least a temporary
victory for the Bush administration. The justices overruled a lower
court, which had attempted to block the transfer as part of a rebuke
to the White House.

Justices
Let U.S. Transfer Padilla to Civilian Custody 05 Jan 2006 The
Supreme Court late Wednesday granted the Bush regime's request to transfer
the terrorism suspect Jose Padilla from military to civilian custody,
ending an odd two-week standoff over where he should be held while the
justices decide whether to hear his case.

Feds
issue dirty bomb cleanup standards that allow significant radiation
04 Jan 2006 The government has issued "dirty bomb" cleanup guidelines
that some critics maintain would expose people returning to such a site
to high cancer risk. The guidelines issued Tuesday by the Homeland Security
Department would allow 'cleanup' standards that in some cases would
be far less stringent than what is required for Superfund sites, commercial
nuclear power plants and nuclear waste dumps. Long-term radiation exposure
using some of the cleanup standards in the guidelines could be as high
as 10,000 millirems a year, equal to more than 1,600 chest X-rays or
30 times the average background radiation from natural sources.

Mine
had hundreds of violations 04 Jan 2006 The West Virginia coal
mine where an underground explosion left 12 miners dead and another
with serious injuries had been cited for hundreds of federal safety
violations since it opened in 1999, government records show... The United
Mine Workers union contends that the federal government has lessened
its enforcement of mining safety regulations in recent years. And despite
problems at the Sago Mine, the highest proposed fine issued by the government
last year was $440 for one of the ventilation violations. Many of the
violations prompted $60 fines.

Email
CLG received (no link, forwarded
by Mark Crispin Miller) From: Liz Allen to Liz Rich, January 4, 2006
--From A Coal Miner's Daughter "Dear Liz: I am a coal miner's daughter.
Our family farm was located 45 miles from the Sago Mine. This morning
I called some friends of mine near Morgantown, W. VA... The miners who
were outside, couldn't believe they didn't pump air down into the holes...that
is what is always done...they didn't......why? They say they kept drilling
holes but never put the air shafts down...when the families heard they
were alive, they started celebrating...they waited for 3 hours to hear
where their loved ones had been taken...and then 3 hours later were
told they were all dead...MOST WENT HOME TO
GET THEIR GUNS...THEY HAD ENOUGH...DON'T KNOW IF CENSORED
TV WILL SHOW THIS OR TELL THAT STORY... BUT THEY INSIST ITS TRUE...AND
KNOWING THESE FOLKS AS I DO...I ABSOLUTELY BELIEVE IT. I personally
think the owner wanted to have 'some protection of his own before he
told the truth'... he knew what would happen when they found out...This
is a crime, this is an industrialized crime...and again, LAYS SQUARELY
AT THE FEET OF THE BUSH REGIME...WHO HAVE LOWERED THE SAFETY STANDARDS
DOWN TO NOTHING." [Note: Letter was edited for length, spelling
- content not altered.]

Email
CLG received (no link) From:
blueridge, January 04, 2006 --Re: SWAT team, state police were positioned
near W. Va. church "A medical student on the radio today thought
he had a theory to explain the 'miscommunication' (which was suspicious
for its length of time in issuing a correction, and was not contradicted
when first given), which is the only thing that accounts for the lack
of carbon monoxide poisoning in the sole survivor: He hypothesises that
oxygen was immediately given to the men, which overwhelmed their systems
(as he claims medically can happen after deprivation) and CAUSED their
deaths! He stated that this was the only explanation for why the sole
survivor had no evidence of carbon monoxide poisoning at all. One thing
is certain, the slow response on day 1--over 5 hours before a single
rescue person showed up (WVU football pre-occupation for Sugar Bowl
and morning after New Years parties?)--and the fact that ONE MAN SURVIVED,
with no trace of gas poisoning, is prima facie evidence that delayed
rescue efforts resulted in negligence, a delay which actually caused
the deaths of the other 12!! I predict the medical examiner may be able
to show 'time of death', which would prove that the delayed rescue CAUSED
their deaths. The evidence is clear that the miners, trained in emergency
scenarios, did NOT die by the blast, used their breathing apparatus,
and removed and BUILT a bunker in the mine, to stay away from possible
gases or carbon monoxide from blast." [Note: Letter was edited
for length, spelling - content not altered.]

SWAT
team, state police were positioned near W. Va. church
04 Jan 2006 In a stunning and heartbreaking reversal, family members
were told early Wednesday that 12 of 13 trapped coal miners were dead
- three hours after they began celebrating news that they were alive...
International Coal Group Chief Executive Officer Ben Hatfield blamed
the wrong information on a "miscommunication.'' ..."There
was no apology. There was no nothing. It was immediately out the door,''
said Nick Helms, son of miner Terry Helms. Chaos broke out in the church
and a fight started. About a dozen state troopers and a SWAT team were
positioned along the road near the church because police were concerned
about violence. Witnesses said one man had to be wrestled to the ground
when he lunged for mining officials. [The violence is the violence
that is perpetrated on workers in the U.S. (and all over the world)
every day, due to the Bush regime's expansion of predatory capitalism.]

Some
120 killed in one of Iraq's bloodiest days 05 Jan 2006 Two suicide
bombers killed 120 people and wounded more than 200 in the Iraqi cities
of Kerbala and Ramadi on Thursday in Iraq's bloodiest day for four months.
Seven U.S. soldiers were also blown up in two separate attacks; another
three bombs exploded in Baghdad, two of them detonated by suicide bombers;
and 'insurgents' sabotaged an oil pipeline near the northern city of
Kirkuk, causing a huge fire.

Seven
US soldiers killed in Iraq: military, police
05 Jan 2006 Five U.S. soldiers were killed when a roadside bomb hit
their vehicle while on patrol in Baghdad on Thursday, the U.S. military
said. Another two American soldiers were killed by a roadside bomb near
the southern Iraqi city of Najaf, Iraqi police said.

Bill
Would Limit Protests At Military Funerals 05 Jan 2006 A Nebraska
lawmaker wants to limit how close protests can be to a military funeral
service. Sen. Mike Friend (R) of
Omaha has introduced a bill that would make it illegal to picket within
100 feet of any part of a funeral service. Similar measures have been
introduced in Missouri, Indiana and Oklahoma.

CIA
had plenty of evidence Iraq had no illegal weapons, book reveals
05 Jan 2006 The CIA had evidence from 30 Iraqi weapons scientists that
Saddam Hussein had abandoned its weapons of mass destruction programs
long before the US invaded, an explosive new book on America's spying
operations says. ["State of War, Secret History of the CIA and
the Bush Administration," by James Risen]

Israeli
Prime Minister Sharon's Condition Remains Grave 05 Jan 2006
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon emerged from emergency brain surgery
Thursday morning after suffering a massive stroke as the national vigil
over his life continued. Doctors said his vital signs appeared normal,
but that the prime minister's condition remained grave.

Greek
paper prints photo of 'MI6 agent' 05 Jan 2006 A photograph purporting
to be Britain's top MI6 agent in Greece was published today on the front
page of an Athens newspaper, as controversy continues over the alleged
role of British agents in the arrest and supposed abuse of a group of
Pakistanis living in Athens.

DNA
of 37% of black men held by police --Home Office denies racial
bias[Gag me with a chainsaw! What *else* would you call it???]
05 Jan 2006 The DNA profiles of nearly four in 10 black men in the UK
are on the police's national database - compared with fewer than one
in 10 white men, according to figures compiled by the Guardian.

Concern
over racial bias in Britain's bulging DNA database 06 Jan 2006
The DNA profiles of nearly four in 10 black men in Britain are on the
national police database, compared with fewer than one in 10 white men.
There are also concerns at predictions that by 2008 the samples of 4.2
million people - 7 per cent of the British population - will be on the
database, which is growing by about half a million a year.

Branded
By James Moore --Author, critical of Bush, is on 'No-Fly' list 04 Jan
2006 "I have been on the No Fly Watch List for a year. I will never
be told the official reason. No one ever is. You cannot sue to get the
information... There were 35,000 Americans in that database last year.
According to a European government that screens hundreds of thousands
of American travelers every year, the list they have been given to work
from has since grown to 80,000."

In
Florida, Abramoff Again Pleads Guilty --The lobbyist pleaded
guilty to conspiracy and wire fraud a day after entering guilty pleas
to three other federal charges. 05 Jan 2006 Former lobbyist Jack Abramoff's
second guilty plea in two days sealed his role as a star witness in
the federal government's largest congressional corruption investigation
in decades. The admission completes the corruption defendant's shift
to government witness.

Bush
to Give Up $6,000 In Abramoff Contributions 05 Jan 2006 Republican
Party officials said yesterday that pResident Bush will give up $6,000
in campaign contributions connected to disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff,
joining an expansive list of politicians who have shed more than half
a million dollars in tainted campaign cash.

The
Pimping of the Presidency --Jack Abramoff and Grover Norquist
Billing Clients for Face Time with G.W. Bush By Lou Dubose (2001
article) "Four months after he took the oath of office in 2001
[not to mention, the office itself], President George W. Bush was the
attraction, and the White House the venue, for a fundraiser organized
by the alleged perpetrator of the largest billing fraud in the history
of corporate lobbying. In May 2001, Jack Abramoff’s lobbying client
book was worth $4.1 million in annual billing for the Greenberg Traurig
law firm. He was a friend of Bush advisor Karl Rove. He was a Bush 'Pioneer,'
delivering at least $100,000 in bundled contributions to the 2000 campaign..."

Trolls
and Maggots--List
of Reichwing whackjobs and corpora-terrorists 'Recessed Appointed' by
Dictator George W. Bush, himself an 'appointee' of the 2000 election.
04 Jan 2006

Bush
goes around Congress again on Amtrak board 04 Jan 2006 For the
second time, Dictator George W. Bush has circumvented Congress to seat
two members of the Amtrak board, the White House said on Wednesday.
Floyd Hall and Enrique Sosa were again placed on the panel through recess
appointments.

Disgruntled
Dems Consider Challenge to Lieberman 19 Dec 2005 Connecticut
Sen. Joe Lieberman may be some Republicans' idea of a good Democrat,
but a growing number of fellow party members in his home state couldn't
disagree more. "It's at the point where he's no longer interested in
his own party's opinion, he's really out of touch with reality," said
Mitchell Fuchs, chairman of the Fairfield Democratic Town Committee
in Connecticut.

Conn.
scraps new 'voting' machines 04 Jan 2006 There likely will not
be a high-tech 'voting' machine in your future this year. After announcing
late last year that Connecticut's 3,300 mechanical, lever-style voting
machines could no longer be used, the secretary of the state reversed
herself.

UK
told not to panic over bird flu 05 Jan 2006 A leading microbiologist
urged the British public not to panic as bird flu crept closer towards
central Europe with two people dying in Turkey from the virus.

Cat
Rides 70 Miles Under SUV --Furry Hitchhiker to Go Up For Adoption
04 Jan 2006 Curiosity didn't kill one cat on a wild ride on the New
Jersey Turnpike. The kitten, now known as "Miracle," hitchhiked a ride
on the underbelly of a sport utility vehicle just before Christmas.
The gray and white feline traveled some 70 miles under the vehicle as
it whizzed along the Turnpike on Dec. 23...

New
Jersey CLGers:Adopt
'Miracle' Miracle truly lives up to his new name. He came to
AWA when he
was discovered underneath an SUV while it was being driven! He traveled
about 60 miles from Newark, NJ holding on for his life. His fur and
paws were burned, and this frightened 9 month old kitten was missing
a claw when he arrived. He is now resting and recovering at AWA and
looking for a new home. To adopt Miracle, ontact our Cat Manager, Shannon,
at cats@awanj.org. Animal Welfare
Association 509 Centennial Boulevard Voorhees, New Jersey 08043 856-424-2288
Contact us at info@awanj.org.

*****

Billion
Dollar Bunker --U.S. plans Baghdad embassy more secure than
Pentagon 03 Jan 2006 America is to spend £1billion on an embassy
in Baghdad "more secure than the Pentagon". Plans for the hi-tech complex
are being kept secret [Oops! Secret's out!] because of the 'terrorist
threat' [fear of the public learning about the misspent money] in Iraq.
The exact location is not being released until later this year but it
is likely to be built in the heavily fortified Green Zone area where
the Iraqi government and US military command is based.

UK
says it's 'showtime' for Syria 04 Jan 2006 The current international
pressure on Syria is "entirely deserved" and it is now "showtime" for
its president, UK Foreign Secretary Jack Straw says. [I am waiting
for 'showtime' for Bush - when his treason trial begins.]

CIA
Gave Iran Bomb Plans, Book Says 04 Jan 2006 In a clumsy effort
to sabotage Iran's nuclear program, the CIA in 2004 intentionally handed
Tehran some top-secret bomb designs laced with a hidden flaw that U.S.
officials hoped would doom any weapon made from them, according to a
new book about the U.S. intelligence agency. But the Iranians were tipped
to the scheme by the Russian defector hired by the CIA to deliver the
plans and may have gleaned scientific information useful for designing
a bomb, writes New York Times reporter James Risen in "State of War:
The Secret History of the CIA and the Bush Administration."

UK
drops allegations of Iran 'involvement' in Iraq bombings 04
Jan 2006 The UK government is reported to have dropped its allegations
of Iranian 'involvement' in supplying Iraqi insurgency groups with bombs
to attack British soldiers. Military and diplomatic officials have stopped
pointing the finger at Tehran after carrying out a thorough assessment
of the latest intelligence, wrote the daily Times.

CIA
'ignored Iraqi weapons evidence' 04 Jan 2006 The Bush regime
is facing new charges over its handling of pre-war intelligence, with
a book alleging that the CIA ignored a mass of evidence gleaned from
Iraqi weapons scientists, months before the 2003 invasion, that Saddam
Hussein had abandoned his WMD programmes.

Last
year deadliest for journalists since 1995-RSF 04 Jan 2006 At
least 63 journalists were killed around the world in 2005 -- the highest
toll in more than a decade -- with Iraq again the deadliest country,
media watchdog Reporters Without Borders (RSF) said on Wednesday.

The
US death squads in Iraq are busy little bees: Senior
Iraqi oil official shot dead in Baghdad 04 Jan 2006 A senior
official from Iraq`s oil ministry and his son were shot dead Wednesday
in Baghdad, an interior ministry official said. [See: Iraq
oil minister survives assassination bid 03 Oct 2005 Iraqi Oil
Minister Ibrahim Bahr al-Uloum survived an assassination attempt in
Baghdad on Monday when his motorcade came under attack, seriously wounding
three of his escorts, police sources said.]

Multiple
attacks on Iraq's bloodiest day in weeks 04 Jan 2006 A suicide
bomber killed 36 people and wounded 40 at a Shia funeral and gunmen
ambushed a vital fuel convoy outside Baghdad amid a wave of attacks
that made Wednesday Iraq’s bloodiest day in weeks.

Iraq
bomber kills 36 at funeral; 8 dead in Baghdad car blast 04 Jan
2006 A suicide bomber killed 36 people and wounded 40 at a Shi'ite funeral
on Wednesday and a car bomb exploded in the holy city of Kerbala...
A car bomb also went off in a Shi'ite district of Baghdad, killing at
least eight people. The bombers defied a major security operation, launched
to find the kidnapped sister of a government minister, to detonate the
vehicle in the north of the city.

Fuel
convoy ambushed near Baghdad -police 04 Jan 2006 Gunmen ambushed
a convoy of 60 fuel tankers north of Baghdad on Wednesday, destroying
20 of them, police and oil officials said. A militant group, the Islamic
Army in Iraq, claimed responsibility, posting a statement on an Internet
site generally used by 'insurgents.' ['Insurgents,' or maybe those
with an interest to slow the oil flow - and cause the prices to skyrocket?]

Iraq
oil exports hit post-war low 02 Jan 2006 Oil exports from Iraq
- which is estimated to have the world's second largest reserves - have
hit a record post-war low, an Oil Ministry spokesman says.

U.S.
to Seek Dismissal of Guantánamo Lawsuits
--Bush administration wants federal judges to deny hearing habeas
corpus petitions effecting at least 300 detainees 04 Jan 2006 The
Bush regime notified federal trial judges in Washington that it would
soon ask them to dismiss all lawsuits brought by prisoners at Guantánamo
Bay, Cuba, challenging their detentions, Justice Department officials
said Tuesday. The action means that the administration is moving swiftly
to take advantage of an amendment to the military bill that Dictator
Bush signed into law last Friday. The amendment strips federal courts
from hearing habeas corpus petitions from Guantánamo detainees.

On
the death of the Official Secrets Act By Craig Murray 03 Jan
2006 "...[O]n the torture telegrams, the [UK] government has been
caught using material from the World's most hideous torture chambers.
Jack Straw and Tony Blair have been caught lying about the fact that
they do this. And they have been shown to be completely impotent in
their efforts to suppress the truth when faced with blogger revolt and
modern technology. They can still try to prosecute
me if they want, but WE ARE THE PEOPLE!! And we cannot be suppressed."
[See: CLG's publication of the Murray documents:Association for
Democracy in Uzbekistan - Confidential letters(.pdf) Confidential
letters from Ambassador Craig Murray 30 Dec 2005"SUMMARY
1. We receive intelligence obtained under torture from the Uzbek intelligence
services, via the US. We should stop. It is bad information anyway...
4. In the period December 2002 to March 2003 I raised several times
the issue of intelligence material from the Uzbek security services
which was obtained under torture and passed to us via the CIA. I queried
the legality, efficacy and morality of the practice."Image of confidential
document from Legal Adviser Michael Wood from 13 March 2003
"Uzbekistan: Intelligence possibly obtained under torture"
30 Dec 2005]

U.S.
needs some brave ambassadors like Craig Murray
By Amitabh Pal 03 Jan 2006 "The former British ambassador to Uzbekistan,
Craig Murray, is a genuine hero. Where is his American counterpart?
Murray has been an outspoken critic of Uzbekistan dictator Islam Karimov—and
U.S. and U.K. indulgence of the tyrant—ever since Murray’s stint as
ambassador from 2002 to 2004. He has most recently been in the news
for publishing
documents on his website revealing that the American and the British
governments got information from the Uzbek regime that it extracted
from prisoners using torture."

Bush,
Cheney Fight for Patriot Act Renewal 04 Jan 2006 Dictator Bush
and Vice pResident Dick Cheney will team up Wednesday to lobby Congress
for a permanent extension of the Patriot Act... Sen. Russ Feingold,
D-Wis., said Bush should spend more time negotiating about the Patriot
Act with Democrats and others on Capitol Hill and less on "staged meetings
with hand-picked participants."

Cheney
strongly defends eavesdropping 04 Jan 2006 Vice pResident Dick
Cheney on Wednesday strongly defended a secret domestic eavesdropping
operation and said had it been in place before the September 11 attacks
the Pentagon might have been spared. [NO, because - one, the surveillance
was already in operation prior to September 11, 2001, and two, the 9/11
terrorist attacks were authorized and/or carried out by agents working
for the Bush regime.]

Secret
Surveillance May Have Occurred Before Authorization 04 Jan 2006
Even before the White House formally authorized a secret program to
spy on U.S. citizens without obtaining warrants, such eavesdropping
was occurring and some of the information was being shared with the
FBI, declassified correspondence and interviews with congressional and
intelligence officials indicate.

Agency
First Acted on Its Own to Broaden Spying, Files Show 04 Jan
2006 The National Security Agency acted on its own authority, without
a formal directive from pResident Bush, to expand its domestic surveillance
operations in the weeks after the Sept. 11 attacks, according to declassified
documents released Tuesday.

Morales
Aligns Himself With Castro, Chavez 04 Jan 2006 President Hugo
Chavez offered Bolivia's president-elect diesel fuel, trade benefits
and help in financing his social reforms as the two leftists cemented
ties, reasserting their opposition to U.S. policy in Latin America.
[Odd, when Dictator Bush meets with John Howard and Tony Blair, the
Associated Press does not insert adjectives such as 'rightist' or 'fascist'
to describe them, but the AP adds the term 'leftist' whenver Chavez,
Morales, or Castro is mentioned.]

Board
Rescinds 'Intelligent Design' Policy 03 Jan 2006 The Dover (PA)
school board on Tuesday rescinded its policy of presenting "intelligent
design" as an alternative to evolution in high school biology classes,
two weeks after a federal judge found the concept was religious and
not scientific.

Bush
to return Abramoff donations as scandal widens 04 Jan 2006 Dictator
George Bush will pay back donations made to his 2004 re-election campaign
by Jack Abramoff, the disgraced Republican lobbyist at the heart of
a Capitol Hill bribery investigation, the White House said today.

Lobbyist
Set to Plead Guilty in Florida; Second Plea in 2 Days 04 Jan
2006 A day after he pleaded guilty to three felony counts in Washington,
Jack Abramoff, a once prominent Republican lobbyist, was set to plead
guilty today in Miami to two charges of conspiracy and fraud in a case
stemming from his purchase of a casino boat line in 2000.

Lobbyist
Abramoff pleads guilty to Florida fraud 04 Jan 2006 Lobbyist
Jack Abramoff pleaded guilty on Wednesday to defrauding lenders in a
Florida casino ship deal. The plea was part of an agreement to help
prosecutors in a Washington influence-peddling probe that could involve
top Republican lawmakers.

The
man who bought off Washington --Lobbyist's guilty plea set
to expose bribery scandal at the heart of US political system 04
Jan 2006 Jack Abramoff, the disgraced former Republican super-lobbyist,
has agreed a deal with US government prosecutors, opening the way for
what could be the biggest political influence peddling scandal in Washington
for decades.

The
DeLay-Abramoff Money Trail
--Nonprofit Group Linked to Lawmaker Was Funded Mostly by Clients
of Lobbyist 31 Dec 2005 The U.S. Family Network, a public advocacy
group that operated in the 1990s with close ties to Rep. Tom DeLay and
claimed to be a nationwide grass-roots organization, was funded almost
entirely by corporations linked to embattled lobbyist Jack Abramoff,
according to tax records and former associates of the group. During
its five-year existence, the U.S. Family Network raised $2.5 million
but kept its donor list secret. The list, obtained by The Washington
Post, shows that $1 million of its revenue came in a single 1998 check
from a now-defunct London law firm whose former partners would not identify
the money's origins.

Jack
Abramoff's "Cesspool of Corruption" By Robert Scheer 03 Jan
2006 "Ironically touting its commitment to 'moral fitness' for
the nation, the front group with the multi-million dollar budget had
a single staff member housed in the backroom of a capital townhouse
it owned and rented out to other organizations linked to [Jack] Abramoff
and Tom DeLay--the latter’s staffers called it, ominously, DeLay’s 'safe
house...' In another scam detailed in the [Washington] Post story
(which could be quickly optioned by Hollywood for a thriller), players
in the mafia-dominated Russian energy industry slid a cool $1 million
payment through a now-defunct London law firm into the U.S. Family Network’s
account – which was, de facto, a slush fund for the Abramoff-DeLay network."

Mysterious
illness could have Katrina ties 01 Jan 2006 "The abdominal
cramps were extremely painful, the skin rash was still there and the
vomiting was horrific," Pafford Ambulance Service EMT Greg Coleman
said. "The doctor told me he had never seen anything like what
my symptoms were and said he couldn’t diagnose what I had."
...The American Society of Health-System Pharmacists (ASHP) Web site
at www.ashp.org,
has posted an article claiming several residents in other states who
traveled to New Orleans in the wake of Katrina have come down with skin
infections and rashes.

Louisiana
gets its first FEMA bills, totaling $156 million 03 Jan 2006
Louisiana's first bills from FEMA for its share of federal hurricane
recovery efforts arrived over the holidays, and they were a doozy: $155.7
million, with a 30-day due date before interest starts accruing.
[Governor Blanco should send back to the Feds the mysterious illness,
in lieu of payment.]

Twelve
of 13 miners found dead after false rescue report By Jerry Isaacs
04 Jan 2006 "State officials in West Virginia have confirmed that
12 miners were killed in the massive explosion that ripped through the
Sago Mine on Monday morning. The horrifying news came only hours after
the miners’ families had been told, and CNN prominently reported, that
all but one of the miners had been found alive and were being pulled
up to safety."

Grieving
family members 'lunged at company officials' [Good! We need to do
more than lunge...] 04 Jan 2006 Family members of victims in a fatal
mining accident became enraged and lunged at a coal company official
after being told today that only one of 13 miners had survived a mine
explosion, witnesses said. The scene unfolded inside the Sago Baptist
Church, three hours after the family members had been told that 12 of
the miners had survived...

Safety
Violations Have Piled Up at Coal Mine 04 Jan 2006 Time and again
over the past four years, federal mining inspectors documented the same
litany of problems at central West Virginia's Sago Mine: mine roofs
that tended to collapse without warning. Faulty or inadequate tunnel
supports. A dangerous buildup of flammable coal dust... That record,
as reflected in dozens of federal inspection reports, shows a succession
of operators struggling to overcome serious, long-standing safety problems,
some of which could be part of the investigation into the cause of the
explosion that trapped 13 miners.

*****

On
Tuesday, CLG Founder and Chair, Michael Rectenwald, Ph.D. and CLG General
Manager, Lori Price, were interviewed on the L.A. Steel Show on Q-103
- WQQQ 103.3 FM,
from Lakeville, CT.
Q-103 serves the Litchfield Hills of Connecticut, Southern Berkshire
County of Massachusetts and Dutchess and Columbia counties in New York
State. The show starts airs from 8-10 PM EST; Mike will be interviewed
shortly after 9PM. 03 Jan 2006

Book
describes how CIA discounted Iraq intelligence03 Jan 2006 ...New
York Times reporter James Risen describes how the CIA ignored information
that Iraq no longer had weapons of mass destruction. His book, "State
of War: The Secret History of the CIA and the Bush Administration" describes
secret operations of the Bush regime's war on [of] terror.

"Since
9/11, the 'most covert tools of national-security policy have been misused.'"The
Book Behind the Bombshell By Romesh Ratnesar 01 Jan 2006 "It
now appears he [New York Times reporter James Risen]may pay a price
for the disclosure: last Friday the Justice Department opened an investigation
into who leaked the existence of the NSA program to the Times, raising
the prospect of Risen's being compelled to reveal the identities of
the 'nearly dozen' current and former officials who spoke to him about
the program or face jail time for contempt of court."

Bush
pushes for Patriot Act renewal 03 Jan 2006 Dictator George W.
Bush opened a 30-day push to gain renewal of the anti[pro]-terrorism
USA Patriot Act on Tuesday with a partisan blast at Democrats and a
meeting with U.S. prosecutors who called the law essential.

Homeland
Security Opened Kansas University Professor's Mail 20 Dec 2005
A retired Kansas University professor says the federal government has
been poking into the mail he receives from abroad. Grant Goodman on
Monday showed the Journal-World a recent letter he had received from
a friend in the Philippines; it apparently had been opened, then re-closed
with green tape bearing the seal of the U.S. Department of Homeland
Security and a message that it had been opened "by Border Protection."

Anger
at refusal to reveal legal advice on possible torture flights
02 Jan 2006 Ministers were under attack last night for refusing to reveal
secret legal advice on so-called American torture flights passing through
Scottish airports. The Scottish Executive said it was not in the public
interest [?!?] to disclose advice on extraordinary rendition,
the process which critics believe involves the CIA flying terror suspects
to be tortured in countries such as Morocco, Egypt and Uzbekistan.

Protests
over CIA flights 07 Jan 2006 Protesters gathered outside three
major Scottish airports before Christmas to make their voices heard
against the US’s extraordinary rendition of "terror suspects"...
Prestwick airport’s slogan of "Pure dead Brilliant!" was changed
by protesters to "Pure dead Torture".

Murtha
says he wouldn't join military now 03 Jan 2006 Rep. John Murtha,
a key Democratic voice who favors pulling U.S. troops from Iraq, said
in remarks airing on Monday that he would not join the U.S. military
today.

A
Life, Wasted --Let's Stop This War Before More Heroes Are
Killed By Paul E. Schroeder 03 Jan 2006 "Early on Aug. 3, 2005,
we heard that 14 Marines had been killed in Haditha, Iraq. Our son,
Lance Cpl. Edward "Augie" Schroeder II, was stationed there... Two painful
questions remain for all of us. Are the lives of Americans being killed
in Iraq wasted? Are they dying in vain? President [sic] Bush says those
who criticize staying the course are not honoring the dead. That is
twisted logic: honor the fallen by killing another 2,000 troops in a
broken policy?"

New
Device Will Sense Through Concrete Walls 03 Jan 2006 Troops
conducting urban operations soon will have the capabilities of superheroes,
being able to sense through 12 inches of concrete to determine if someone
is inside a building. [Yes, but can it sense through Bush's head?]

UK
'cover-up' on Israel's nukes 09 Dec 2005 Britain is being accused
of trying to cover up its role in helping Israel develop its nuclear
weapons programme. In August, Newsnight revealed that more than 40 years
ago, Britain sold heavy water, a key substance, to Israel.

Rules
for Granting Terror Aid Are Overhauled 03 Jan 2006 Facing cuts
in antiterrorism financing, the Department of Homeland Security announced
today that it has overhauled its system for evaluating new requests
for money from a $765 million aid program for cities.

Stand
with Congressman Conyers --Demand Censure for Bush-Cheney Misconduct;
Investigate Impeachable Offenses "I am taking steps against
the Bush Administration’s handling of the Iraq War and its collection
of intelligence. I am going to need you to stand with me in fighting
for accountability." [Link
to 'Demand Censure for Bush-Cheney Misconduct, Investigate Impeachable
Offenses' petition, on the Conyers website.]

US
lobbyist faces long prison sentence 04 Jan 2006 US lobbyist
Jack Abramoff pleaded guilty to federal charges of conspiracy, tax evasion
and mail fraud, clearing the way for him to cooperate in a massive US
government investigation of influence peddling involving members of
Congress. He faces 30 years in prison.

Abramoff
Pleads Guilty to 3 Felony Charges 04 Jan 2006 Jack Abramoff,
the once-powerful lobbyist at the center of a wide-ranging public corruption
investigation, pleaded guilty yesterday to fraud, tax evasion and conspiracy
to bribe public officials in a deal that requires him to provide evidence
about members of Congress. The plea deal could have enormous legal and
political consequences for the lawmakers on whom Abramoff lavished luxury
trips, skybox fundraisers, campaign contributions, jobs for their spouses,
and meals at Signatures, the lobbyist's upscale restaurant.

Summary
of Charges Against Abramoff 03 Jan 2006 Details of the three
federal charges to which lobbyist Jack Abramoff pleaded guilty on Tuesday,
according to a Justice Department filing in U.S. District Court

Abramoff
plea deal ties Ney to corruption--Feds
say Ohio congressman got 'things of value' from lobbyist 03 Jan
2006 Rep. Bob Ney of Heath received a "stream of things of value" from
a Washington lobbyist, according to a court document released this morning
by the Department of Justice.

Plea
deal may hurt top Republicans 03 Jan 2006 Embattled U.S. lobbyist
Jack Abramoff pleaded guilty on Tuesday to federal charges after agreeing
to cooperate in a corruption probe that could involve several top Republican
lawmakers, including former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay.

Police
find 'Sharon bribe clues' 03 Jan 2006 Israeli police have evidence
that Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's family received $3m in bribes, it
has been alleged on an Israeli television channel. Police have been
investigating illegal political contributions allegedly made in 1999,
when Mr Sharon was running for the leadership of the Likud Party.

Officials
at mine rescue 'very discouraged' --Emergency workers speed
up search efforts for 13 trapped miners 03 Jan 2006 Rescue crews scrapped
their conservative approach to free 13 trapped miners Tuesday after
efforts to contact the men went unanswered and air samples showed continued
high levels of contaminated air.

Windows
PCs face 'huge' virus threat
02 Jan 2006 Computer security experts were grappling with the threat
of a new weakness in Microsoft’s Windows operating system that could
put hundreds of millions of PCs at risk of infection by spyware or viruses.

*****

Wiretapping
plan bypassed National Security Council: Report 02 Jan 2006
The Bush administration plan for wiretapping without warrants was so
sensitive that the "Lawyers' Group," an organisation of government attorneys
in the National Security Council, was bypassed. Instead, the legal vetting
was given to Alberto Gonzales, the then White House counsel 'Time' magazine
quoted
administration officials as saying.

Has
Bush Gone Too Far? 01 Jan 2006 In 2002, Dictator Bush issued
a secret Executive Order to allow the NSA to eavesdrop without a warrant
on phone conversations, e-mail and other electronic communications,
even when at least one party to the exchange was in the U.S.--the circumstance
that would ordinarily trigger the warrant requirement. For four years,
Bush's decision remained a closely guarded secret. Because the NSA program
was so sensitive, Administration officials tell TIME, the "lawyers'
group," an organization of fewer than half a dozen government attorneys
the National Security Council convenes to review top-secret intelligence
programs, was bypassed.

Ashcroft
Refused to Sign Off On Bush's Warrantless Spying 09 Jan 2006
NEWSWEEK has learned that ferocious behind-the-scenes infighting stalled,
for a time, the Bush administration's ambitious program of electronic
spying on U.S. citizens at home and abroad. On one day in the spring
of 2004, White House chief of staff Andy Card and the then White House
Counsel Alberto Gonzales made a bedside visit to John Ashcroft, attorney
general at the time, who was stricken with a rare and painful pancreatic
disease, to try—without success—to get him to reverse his deputy,
Acting Attorney General James Comey, who was balking at the warrantless
eavesdropping.

White
House investigates contractor's Web tracking 01 Jan 2006 Unbeknown
to the Bush regime [Yeah, right!], an outside contractor has been using
Internet tracking technologies that may be prohibited to analyze usage
and traffic patterns at the White House's Web site, an official said.

Bush
Says Spying 'Necessary' 02 Jan 2006 Dictator Bush today mounted
his third defense in two weeks of his secret domestic spying program,
calling his order authorizing warrantless eavesdropping on U.S. citizens
a limited, legal program that Americans understand is protecting their
security.

A
Criminal Administration By Paul Craig Roberts 02 Jan 2006 "Caught
in gratuitous and illegal spying on American citizens, the Bush administration
has defended its illegal activity and set
the Justice (sic) Department on the trail of the person or persons
who informed the New York Times of Bush’s violation of law...
Bush has actually declared it treasonous to reveal his illegal behavior!
His propagandists, who masquerade as news organizations, have taken
up the line: To reveal wrong-doing by the Bush administration is to
give aid and comfort to the enemy... The Bush administration’s lies,
felonies, and illegalities have revealed it to be a criminal administration
with a police state mentality and police state methods."

Muslim
Scholars Were Paid to Aid U.S. Propaganda 02 Jan 2006 A Pentagon
contractor that paid Iraqi newspapers to print positive articles written
by American soldiers has also been compensating Sunni religious scholars
in Iraq in return for assistance with its propaganda work, according
to current and former employees.

Iraq
Oil Minister 'Resigns' Under Pressure --Ahmad Chalabi Is
New Iraq Oil Minister 02 Jan 2006 Iraq's oil minister said Monday
he 'resigned' after the government last week gave him a forced vacation
and replaced him with Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Chalabi following
criticism about fuel price increases.

U.S.
Has No Rebuilding Funds For Iraq
02 Jan 2006 The Bush regime does not intend to seek any new funds for
Iraq 'reconstruction' in the budget request going before Congress in
February, officials say. The decision signals the winding down of an
$18.4 billion U.S. 'rebuilding' effort in which roughly half of the
money was eaten away by the 'insurgency,' a buildup of Iraq's criminal
justice system and the investigation and 'trial' of Saddam Hussein [NO,
nearly ALL of the money was 'eaten away' by Bush's no-bid corpora-terrorists
- Halliburton and Blackwater USA.]

Suicide
Bombing Kills at Least 7 in Iraq 02 Jan 2006 A suicide bomber
slammed an explosives-packed vehicle into a bus carrying police recruits
in the central Iraqi city of Baqubah on Monday, killing at least seven
other people and wounding 13, officials said.

U.S.
military shuts down soldiers' blogs
02 Jan 2006 As hundreds of soldiers overseas have started keeping Internet
journals about the heat, the homesickness, the bloodshed, word speeds
from the battlefront faster than ever. More and more, though, U.S. military
commanders in Iraq and Afghanistan are clamping down on these military
Web logs, known as milblogs.

Teacher
pursues free speech lawsuit 26 Dec 2005 In the tense months
before the United States invaded Iraq, elementary school teacher Deb
Mayer was asked by one of her students whether she'd ever join an anti-war
protest... That conversation in January 2003, which lasted all of five
minutes, launched a nearly three-year odyssey for Mayer, who now lives
in Madison, Wis. as she awaits the outcome of her federal lawsuit against
the Monroe County, Ind., school system for firing her.

Ankara
denies report US wants Turk base to hit Iran 02 Jan 2006 Turkey
said on Monday that newspaper reports which say the United States has
asked Ankara for permission to use military bases in Turkey for possible
attacks on neighbouring Iran are not connected with reality.

Toward
an 'axis of good' 02 Jan 2006 Evo Morales, the president-elect
of Bolivia, will travel to Venezuela this week from a visit to Cuba.
But he would have been happy to travel to the US - except that Washington
did not invite him. The Bolivian leader has good relations with Fidel
Castro, in Cuba, and Hugo Chavez, in Venezuela, who are both critics
of George Bush's government in the US...

U.S.
Research Budget Worries Scientists 01 Jan 2006 Defense and space
projects account for most increases in the $135 billion federal research
and development budget next year, worrying scientists who fear that
after years of growth the nation is beginning to skimp on technology
that fuels marketplace innovation.

Lugar
supports hearings on secret domestic spying order 02 Jan 2006
Indiana Senator Richard Lugar (R) says he supports congressional hearings
to look into pResident Bush's contention that he had constitutional
and congressional authority to authorize domestic wiretaps without a
court order.

E-tracking,
coming to a DMV near you 05 Dec 2005 By Declan McCullagh "The
U.S. Department of Transportation has been handing millions of dollars
to state governments for GPS-tracking pilot projects designed
to track vehicles wherever they go... Now electronic tracking and
taxing may be coming to a DMV near you. The Office of Transportation
Policy Studies, part of the Federal Highway Administration, is about
to announce another round of grants totaling some $11 million."

ACLU
will provide cameras to tape police 31 Dec 2005 The St. Louis
chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, a frequent critic of
the city police, says it plans to arm residents of the city's north
side with video cameras to record officers' dealings with the public.

Curfew
plan to control unruly children 26 Dec 2005 Tearaway children
will be subject to tough control orders and night-time curfews even
before they commit a criminal offence under a new drive against
anti-social behaviour.

Mega
barf alert!Sen.
John Kerry Keeps 2008 Options Open [Let's see... When the 2008 'election'
is stolen by an even greater margin than the 2004 'election,' how many
hours will it take Kerry or Gore to 'offer their concession' to the
Bush terror team?] 02 Jan 2006 It's almost as if Sen. John Kerry
never stopped running for president... The Massachusetts Democrat, defeated
by Bush in 2004 [NO, Kerry
won, but couldn't *wait* to concede to Bush right after the coup
d'etat], insists it is far too early to talk about the 2008 race, but
some analysts assume he has already positioning himself for another
shot at the White House.

FEMA:
Evacuees in Hotels Get New Deadline 02 Jan 2006 Hurricane Katrina
evacuees around the nation who faced a Jan. 7 deadline for checking
out of their government-funded hotel rooms have received a reprieve:
Federal officials will keep paying for the rooms beyond that date as
they iron out issues arising from a class-action lawsuit.

States
Take Lead in Push to Raise Minimum Wages 02 Jan 2006 Seventeen
states and the District of Columbia have acted on their own to set minimum
wages that exceed the $5.15 an hour rate set by the federal government,
and this year lawmakers in dozens of the remaining states will debate
raising the minimum wage.

Australia
battles wildfires as new year brings record heatwave
--Sydney records highest temperature since 1939 --Buildings destroyed
as fires burn out of control 02 Jan 2006 Sydney sweltered through its
hottest New Year's Day on record yesterday as blowtorch conditions pushed
the mercury to 44.2C (112F), causing
power blackouts and sparking more than 40 bushfires along Australia's
east coast.

*****

NSA
Gave Other U.S. Agencies Information From Surveillance --Fruit
of Eavesdropping Was Processed and Cross-Checked With Databases
01 Jan 2006 Information captured by the National Security Agency's secret
eavesdropping on communications between the United States and overseas
has been passed on to other government agencies, which cross-check the
information with tips and information collected in other databases,
current and former administration officials said.

Justice
Deputy Resisted Parts of Spy Program 01 Jan 2006 A top Justice
Department official objected in 2004 to aspects of the National Security
Agency's domestic surveillance program and refused to sign on to its
continued use amid concerns about its legality and oversight, according
to officials with knowledge of the tense internal debate. The concerns
appear to have played a part in the temporary suspension of the secret
program.

Top
Bush officials should testify on NSA: Senator 01 Jan 2006 Top
White House and Justice Department officials should be called to testify
before a U.S. Senate committee investigating a secret domestic eavesdropping
program, Democratic Sen. Charles Schumer said on Sunday.

Schumer
Seeks Motive in U.S. Spy Probe
01 Jan 2006 The investigation into leaks about a domestic spying program
should determine whether the motivation was damaging security or revealing
a potentially illegal activity, a Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee
said Sunday. ''There are differences between felons [that would be
Bush] and whistleblowers, and we ought to wait 'til the investigation
occurs to decide what happened,'' said Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y.

Leak
Hypocrisy
31 Dec 2005 By Larry C. Johnson "The Bush Administration's new
offensive against leakers just reminds us that when the President's
political standing is at stake all is fair if the purpose is to protect
the Pres...., er I mean the nation. Too bad George Bush did not express
the same outrage when Scooter Libby, Karl Rove, and others in his employ,
told eager journalists that Joe Wilson's wife, Valerie Plame, was a
CIA operative... I also seem to recall that the Bush White House used
leaks in the midst of the 2004 Presidential campagin to burnish the
President's image and keep Americans on edge."

Suspected
CIA tactics spread outrage in EU
01 Jan 2006 It is difficult to name a Western European nation that has
not announced some kind of investigation into whether the U.S. has been
using its airports or airspace to ferry 'terrorist' suspects to countries
such as Egypt, Syria and Jordan for interrogations. "Renditions," as
the CIA calls that practice, have become an incendiary issue in Sweden,
Norway, Austria, Switzerland, Germany, France, Great Britain, Spain,
Portugal and Malta. A report that the CIA secretly detained high-level
'Al Qaeda' operatives in Eastern Europe has caused additional turmoil
in Poland and Romania, considered the most likely host nations.

CIA
may need decade to rebuild clandestine service 01 Jan 2006 A
former CIA counterterrorism officer who tracked Osama bin Laden through
the mountains of Afghanistan says the U.S. spy agency could need a decade
to build up its clandestine service for the U.S. war on [of] terrorism.

UK
police gain greater arrest powers 01 Jan 2006 British police
will be able to arrest anyone for any criminal offence, including minor
misdemeanours such as dropping litter, under new laws which come into
force with the new year... The new law requires only that the police
have reasonable grounds for believing that a person's arrest is necessary.
This can include a suspect's refusal to give their name and address.

Pupils
Being Given 'Patriotism' Tests in Washington State Schools
By Paul Joseph Watson 30 Dec 2005 "Children in Washington State
are being given 'Patriotism tests' which are completely unrelated to
their studies. The paper
gauges whether or not the student shows fealty to the power of the state
and whether the student believes in the right to overthrow a corrupt
government."

At
the sound of the beep . . . By Doug De Clue 31 Dec 3005 "I've
included a sample script below that may be helpful to your readers when
recording an outgoing message on their answering machine in the future
in light of President [sic] Bush's determination to continue to use
the NSA to spy on American citizens..."

Government
Prepares for Next Big [Bush] Disaster 01 Jan 2006 The Bush administration
is retooling its disaster plan to react more quickly to the next catastrophe.
[The Bush regime *is* the disaster!] Chief among the changes
to the original 426-page plan are several ideas for rushing federal
resources to a stricken area, including: Dropping small military or
civilian vehicles, packed with communications gear, into a disaster
zone by helicopter or driving them from nearby staging areas. Helping
local and state police catch looters and snipers by providing federal
law enforcement officers if requested.

'US
planning strike against Iran' 31 Dec 2005 The United States
government reportedly began coordinating with NATO its plans for a possible
military attack against Iran. The German newspaper Der Tagesspiegel
collected various reports from the German media indicating that the
North Atlantic Treaty Organization are examining the prospects of such
a strike.

Military
fears big Afghan losses 01 Jan 2006 British troops set to deploy
to southern Afghanistan this spring could sustain losses on a scale
not seen since the Falklands war, military intelligence officers have
warned. They say insurgent forces in the south are preparing for a large
offensive by Al-Qaeda and the Taliban, backed by sophisticated weapons
and training from Iran. [Iran? LOL! The GOP media whores are going
to start fabricating evidence linking 'al Qaeda' to Iran, in order to
justify Bush's next illegal invasion.]

US
forces step up Iraq airstrikes 01 Jan 2006 American forces are
dramatically stepping up air attacks on insurgents in Iraq as they prepare
to start the withdrawal of ground troops in the spring.

844
in U.S. Military Killed in Iraq in 2005 01 Jan 2006 At least
844 American service members were killed in Iraq in 2005, nearly matching
2004's total of 848, according to information released by the United
States government and a nonprofit organization that tracks casualties
in Iraq.

Thousands
of US troops to oversee Iraqi police 31 Dec 2005 Thousands of
American troops will be assigned to Iraqi police units to monitor their
work and rein in [promote] those who abuse prisoners, according to US
military officials in Baghdad.

12
Car Bombs Detonated in Iraq 01 Jan 2006 'Insurgents' exploded
13 car bombs across Iraq on Sunday, including eight in Baghdad within
a three-hour span, but the New Year's Day bombings killed no one and
injured only 20 people, police said.

Mortar
attacks on Green Zone
31 Dec 2005 At least three mortars have been fired at the Green Zone
in central Baghdad and sirens were heard wailing throughout the heavily
fortified area.

Number
of nations sending troops to Iraq declining 01 Jan 2006 The
number of countries providing troops to serve in Iraq as part of the
American-led occupation is declining, and some key U.S. allies have
announced plans to keep forces there only at reduced levels.

N.
Korea Urges U.S. Pullout From S. Korea 01 Jan 2006 North Korea
on Sunday accused the United States of seeking to start a new war on
the Korean Peninsula, vowing to boost its own military and calling for
the withdrawal of U.S. troops from South Korea.

FEMA
dumps unused hurricane drinking water 31 Dec 2005 One million
cans of drinking water donated for hurricane relief have been emptied
and recycled because the water was never used at Texas and Louisiana
hurricane shelters, the Federal Emergency Management Agency said.

Florida
gets an F in science 30 Dec 2005 A new state-by-state analysis
by an influential education foundation concludes that Florida's standards
are among the worst in the nation - with a big reason being its failure
to adequately explain evolution. The report by the Washington,D.C.-based
Fordham Institute calls Florida's standards "thin," "naive," "disappointing"
- and in some cases, flat wrong.

2
taxes on wealthy expiring
--5-year phaseout starts Jan. 1; move to cost treasury $27 billion
31 Dec 2005 They call them the PEP and Pease provisions of tax law,
and they are on their way out. If you are wealthy, this should make
you smile. You could be a little richer.

Democrats
Want Congress to Rethink Budget 31 Dec 2005 Reconsidering the
federal budget should be one of Congress' first priorities in the new
year, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi said Saturday in the Democrats'
weekly radio address.

Grand
jury decision on Ohio reactor may come soon
31 Dec 2005 Ohio residents are expected to learn next month whether
criminal charges will be filed against any current or former FirstEnergy
Corp. employees linked to the near-rupture of Davis-Besse's old nuclear
reactor head in 2002. The reactor head became so dangerously thinned
out by uncontrolled acid that the Nuclear Regulatory Commission has
repeatedly called it an avoidable safety lapse that posed the greatest
risk to the public since the partial meltdown of the Three Mile Island
Unit 2 reactor near Harrisburg, Pa., in 1979.

Report
blasts lack of oversight of test fields --Investigators say
the USDA lacks details on what happens with pharma-crops. 30 Dec
2005 The U.S. Department of Agribusiness ['Agriculture'] has failed
to properly oversee field trials of genetically engineered crops, including
plants designed to produce chemicals for medical and industrial uses,
investigators say. A report released Thursday by the USDA's inspector
general said the department "lacks basic information" on where field
tests are or what is done with the crops after they are harvested.

Tropical
Storm Zeta lingers over open Atlantic 01 Jan 2006 A slightly
weakened Tropical Storm Zeta lingered over the open Atlantic on Sunday,
a month after the end of the official Atlantic and Caribbean hurricane
season. Zeta is the 27th named storm of a season that broke a whole
catalogue of weather records...

*****

White
House will continue to track Internet 30 Dec 2005 The White
House said Friday its Web site will keep using Internet tracking technologies,
deciding that they aren't prohibited after all under 2003 federal privacy
guidelines. [It is time for us to start 'bugging' them.Arming
the Left: Is the time now? --by Charles Southwell "As long
as we pose no REAL threat to the powers-that-be, to what is shaping
up into a dictatorship, we will continue to be ignored. Right now, we
are ignored because we present no organized power to fight this onslaught
of anti-democratic, totalitarian government that we are up against..."]

Covert
CIA Program Withstands New Furor 30 Dec 2005 The effort pResident
Bush authorized shortly after Sept. 11, 2001, to fight [foment] al Qaeda
has grown into the largest CIA covert action program since the height
of the Cold War, expanding in size and ambition despite a growing outcry
at home and abroad over its clandestine tactics, according to former
and current intelligence officials and congressional and administration
sources.

US
investigates Bush spying leak 30 Dec 2005 The US justice department
has opened an inquiry into how information about Dictator George Bush's
secret spying programme was leaked, officials say. The investigation
is expected to focus on how the New York Times newspaper obtained the
information. [Why doesn't the 'Justice' Department investigate Bush
- for breaking the law - instead of probing the source of the leak?!?]

Brit
envoy says UK lied on torture 30 Dec 2005 The British government
was accused Friday of lying over its connivance at the use of torture
by one of its own ambassadors. Craig Murray, former British Ambassador
to Uzbekistan, has posted on his personal website a series of documents
that the British government sought to suppress and that appear to buttress
his charges.

U.S.
to Restrict Iraqi Police 30 Dec 2005 After a series of prison
abuse scandals that have inflamed sectarian tensions, U.S. officials
announced plans Thursday to rein in Iraqi special police forces, increasing
the number of American troops assigned to work with them and requiring
consultations before the Iraqis mount raids in Baghdad. [?!? The
US has been directing the abuse and raids in order to inflame the sectarian
tensions and hence justify continuing the occupation.]

US
reports surge in Guantanamo hunger strike 30 Dec 2005 The number
of Guantanamo Bay prisoners taking part in a hunger strike that began
nearly five months ago has surged to 84 since Christmas Day, the U.S.
military said on Thursday.

UN
concern at Guantanamo force-feeding 30 Dec 2005 There are credible
allegations that Guantanamo hunger strikers are being force-fed in a
cruel manner, the UN special rapporteur on torture has said.

US
denies guards force-feed Guantanamo hunger strikers 31 Dec 2005
The United States is denying allegations that its methods of force-feeding
hunger strikers at the Guantanamo Bay military base constitute torture.
The United Nations special rapporteur on torture, Manfred Nowak, says
visiting lawyers have made well-substantiated allegations of cruelty.

Two
Soldiers Die in Iraq 30 Dec 2005 A Task Force Baghdad soldier
died today when a roadside bomb struck his patrol vehicle in southern
Baghdad, and a soldier assigned to the 2nd Marine Division, 2nd Marine
Expeditionary Force, died of wounds suffered from enemy small-arms fire
Dec. 29 in Fallujah.

Mega
barf alert!Ahmed
Chalabi Named Iraqi Oil Minister 30 Dec 2005 Iraqi Oil Minister
Ibrahim Bahr al-Uloum has been temporarily released from his post amid
a dispute over the government's petrol pricing policy. He is to be replaced
for 30 days by 'Deputy Prime Minister' [CIA troll] Ahmed Chalabi. Mr
Bahr al-Uloum had publicly objected to the Iraqi government's decision
this month to raise petrol prices threefold.

Exxon
Mobil terrorists trolling for more profits:Long
Lines Form in Baghdad as Major Refinery Shuts Down 30 Dec 2005
Long lines formed at gas stations in Baghdad on Friday as word spread
that Iraq's largest oil refinery had shut down in the face of threats
against truck drivers, and fears grew of a gas shortage. [Gee, I
wonder who is making the threats... Let's see.. who would benefit from
an oil refinery shutdown - the 'insurgents?' LOL.]

Two-Thirds
of Australians Regret Iraq War 31 Dec 2005 Many adults in Australia
believe their government made a mistake in joining the coalition effort,
according to a Newspoll published in The Australian. 66 per cent
of respondents think it was not worth it going to war in Iraq, up eight
points in a year.

German
media: U.S. preparing Iran strike 30 Dec 2005 The Bush regime
is preparing its NATO allies for a possible military strike against
suspected nuclear sites in Iran in the New Year, according to German
media reports, reinforcing similar earlier suggestions in the Turkish
media.

Is
Washington Planning a Military Strike? 30 Dec 2005 Recent reports
in the German media suggest that the United States may be preparing
its allies for an imminent military strike against facilities that are
part of Iran's suspected clandestine nuclear weapons program.

10
Commandments OK'd at courthouse 21 Dec 2005 A Cincinnati appeals
court ruled Tuesday that a Kentucky courthouse can display the Ten Commandments
alongside other historical documents, even though the U.S. Supreme Court
recently barred a similar display 50 miles away.

Authorities
urge states to find 2,000 evacuee sex offenders
30 Dec 2005 Governors in states that accepted Katrina evacuees are being
urged to locate about 2,000 registered sex offenders who fled the Gulf
region during the hurricane's mayhem and may have vanished from legally
required tracking. [They should start searching for the thousands
of missing children snagged by numerous GOPedophilia
rings.]

An
Extensive Web of Financial Ties --Nonprofit Group Linked
to DeLay Was Funded Mostly by Clients of Abramoff 31 Dec 2005 The
U.S. Family Network, a public advocacy group that operated in the 1990s
with close ties to Rep. Tom DeLay and claimed to be a nationwide grass-roots
organization, was funded almost entirely by corporations linked to embattled
lobbyist Jack Abramoff, according to tax records and former associates
of the group.

Congress
Is Asked to Raise Debt Limit 30 Dec 2005 Treasury Secretary
John W. Snow said yesterday that the United States could be unable to
pay its bills in early 2006 unless Congress raises the government's
borrowing authority, which is now capped at $8.18
trillion.

Oil
Prices End 2005 40 Percent Higher 30 Dec 2005 Oil futures settled
above $61 a barrel Friday and finished 40 percent higher than they started
in 2005, capping a tough year for energy consumers but a great one for
the petroleum industry as prices soared.

Heating
costs imperil those who rely on aid
--Lagging subsidies bring fears of a harsh winter 30 Dec 2005
The maximum combined federal and state government subsidy this winter
for Massachusetts is $765, and most households on the margins receive
less. But with surging world demand driving up energy prices, that amount
covers only one-quarter to one-third of a household's winter heating
needs, said energy specialists.

Touch-screen
voting machines a go 30 Dec 2005 (Penn.) Westmoreland County's
commissioners voted unanimously in favor of purchasing touch-screen
voting machines from a Nebraska company after hearing concerns from
a number of people who feel the wrong choice was made.

Tropical
storms forming in late December... Gee, do you think global warming
is a problem? Tropical
Storm Zeta forms in Atlantic
30 Dec 2005 Tropical Storm Zeta formed Friday in the eastern Atlantic
Ocean, another installment in a record-breaking hurricane season that
officially ended last month. Zeta, the 27th storm of the season, formed
Friday about 1,000 miles south-southwest of the Azores islands, according
to an advisory posted on the National Hurricane Center's Web site.

*****

Ex-envoy
to Uzbekistan goes public on torture 30 Dec 2005 Britain's former
ambassador to Uzbekistan, Craig Murray, has defied the Foreign Office
by publishing on the internet documents providing evidence that the
British Government knowingly received information extracted by torture
in the "war on terror". See: CLG's publication of the Murray documents:Association for
Democracy in Uzbekistan - Confidential letters(.pdf) Confidential
letters from Ambassador Craig Murray 30 Dec 2005"SUMMARY
1. We receive intelligence obtained under torture from the Uzbek intelligence
services, via the US. We should stop. It is bad information anyway...
4. In the period December 2002 to March 2003 I raised several times
the issue of intelligence material from the Uzbek security services
which was obtained under torture and passed to us via the CIA. I queried
the legality, efficacy and morality of the practice."Image of confidential
document from Legal Adviser Michael Wood from 13 March 2003
"Uzbekistan: Intelligence possibly obtained under torture"
30 Dec 2005

US
frees Aussie from the hell of Abu Ghraib 30 Dec 2005 Australian
Ahmed Aziz Rafiq, who travelled to Iraq to marry his cousin and ended
up imprisoned in the notorious Abu Ghraib jail for "security reasons"
has finally been released by the US military, after being held without
charge for almost two years.

US
fighter jets kill 10 in northern Iraq 29 Dec 2005 US fighter
jets dropped two 500-pound bombs on suspected 'insurgents' in a northern
Iraq town, killing 10 people, the US military said in a statement today.

Pentagon
propaganda program orders soldiers to promote Iraq war while home on
leave By Doug Thompson 29 Dec 2005 "...[H]undreds of American
military men and women returned to the United States on holiday leave
this month with orders to sell the Iraq war to a skeptical public. The
program, coordinated through a Pentagon operation dubbed 'Operation
Homefront,' ordered military personnel to give interviews to their hometown
newspapers, television stations and other media outlets and praise the
American war effort in Iraq."

As
Bush bumbles his way toward Armageddon:Pentagon
Shakes Up Doomsday Hierarchy 29 Dec 2005 In a Bush regime revision
of plans for Pentagon succession in a doomsday scenario, three of Defense
Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld's most loyal advisers moved ahead of the
secretaries of the Army, Navy and Air Force... In its current incarnation,
the doomsday plan moves to near the top three undersecretaries who are
Rumsfeld loyalists and who previously worked for Vice pResident Dick
Cheney when he was defense secretary.

Victory
in name only
--Empty talk of turning points has failed to stop Bush's election
[sic] triumph being reduced to ashes By Sidney Blumenthal 30 Dec
2005 "In his second inaugural address, George Bush four times summoned
the image of fire - 'a day of fire', 'we have lit a fire', 'fire in
the minds of men', and 'untamed fire'. Over the course of the first
year of his second term, all four of the ancient Greek elements have
wreaked havoc: the fire of war, the air and water of Hurricane Katrina,
the earth ravaged by whirlwinds raging from Iraq to Florida, from Louisiana
to Washington."

Marines
pays $100K for retooled Vietnam-era jeep
29 Dec 2005 The Marine Corps is paying General Dynamics $100,000 apiece
for a revamped Vietnam-era jeep, Pentagon records show. That's seven
times what a deluxe commercial version of the vehicle costs. It's also
three times what U.S. Export-Import Bank records show the Dominican
Republic paid four years ago for a military version of the vehicle,
called the Growler, a recycled version of the M151 jeep.

U.S.
No Longer Promoting Landmine Ban
28 Dec 2005 In 1994, the United States was the first nation to call
for the elimination of landmines that killed and maimed hundreds of
thousands of innocent people around the world... Today, Washington not
only stands in opposition to an international treaty that bans the use
and production of antipersonnel landmines, but intends to make new ones
too.

US
intelligence service bugged website visitors despite ban --Agency
apologises for use of 'cookie' tracking files --Exposure adds to pressure
over White House powers 30 Dec 2005 The intelligence service at the
centre of the row over eavesdropping tracked visitors to its website,
despite US government regulations. Monitoring files, known as "cookies",
were discovered by a privacy activist at a time when the White House
is on the defensive about its use of the National Security Agency to
monitor the communications of US citizens.

NSA
just one of many federal agencies spying on Americans
By Doug Thompson 27 Dec 2005 "Spying on Americans by the super-secret
National Security Agency is not only more widespread than President
[sic] George W. Bush admits but is part of a concentrated, government-wide
effort to gather and catalog information on U.S. citizens, sources close
to the administration say."

Police-State
Powers Are Our Biggest Threat By Martin Garbus 26 Dec 2005 "What
has happened in this country? ...If or when there’s another terrorist
attack, the government will seek more powers, claiming that it shows
current laws are inadequate... The attempt to end habeas corpus started
at Guantánamo; it is now spreading to the rest of America... The legal
system to treat the new prisoners of the war on terror, created out
of thin air, disgraces us. No one ever before suggested such a legal
system—not during the Civil War, not during World War I or World War
II, and not during the Cold War. We are better than military commissions,
Abu Ghraib, Guantánamo, the Patriot Act and 'rendition'—the sending
of prisoners overseas to be tortured at C.I.A.-controlled prisons. This
country is approaching a dangerous turning point." [a must read]

Effects
of Anthrax vaccine downplayed 20 Dec 2005 The Pentagon never
told Congress about more than 20,000 hospitalizations involving troops
who took the anthrax vaccine from 1998 through 2000, despite repeated
promises that such cases would be publicly disclosed. Instead, generals
and Defense Department officials claimed that fewer than 100 people
were hospitalized or became seriously ill after receiving the shot,
according to an investigation
by the Daily Press of Newport News.

Special
Report: Anthrax Puzzle
04 - 07 Dec 2005 (The Daily Press) "Who's telling the truth about
the military's anthrax vaccine? The Pentagon and government-financed
experts, who say the drug is safe and effective? Or veterans who say
their health took a nose-dive after they got the shot? Now that troops
have a choice, they have to decide whom to trust. Decide for yourself,
as the Daily Press brings you four days of coverage."

Bad
vaccines may trigger bird flu: expert
29 Dec 2005 China is most likely using substandard poultry vaccine or
not enough good vaccine, which would explain recent outbreaks of the
deadly H5N1 bird flu virus in poultry, a prominent virologist said on
Thursday. Dr Robert Webster, of St Jude's Children's Hospital in Memphis,
Tennessee, said the problem of substandard vaccines was not exclusive
to China. [And, that is Bush's main reason behind his efforts to
make the deadly vaccines mandatory and to remove all manufacturer liability.
When the bird flu pandemic arrives, Bush will invoke police state measures
while he pursues further dictatorial power. See article summaries, below.]

US
uses live bird flu viruses in vaccine experiment 18 Dec 2005
In an isolation ward of a Baltimore hospital, up to 30 'volunteers'
will participate this April in a bold experiment: A vaccine made with
a live version of the most notorious bird flu
will be sprayed into their noses.

U.S.
[Bioterror] Team Will Test Live-Virus 18 Dec 2005 Bird Flu Vaccine
Researchers at the U.S. National Institutes of Health will soon recruit
30 human volunteers to test the effectiveness of a vaccine containing
a live but weakened form of the H5N1 bird flu virus.

U.S.
House approves $3.8 billion for avian flu[for pharma-terrorists] 19 Dec 2005 The U.S. House of Representatives
early on Monday approved $3.78 billion to begin preparations for a possible
avian flu epidemic. The bill would also shield manufacturers of vaccines
and drugs from lawsuits during an epidemic.

House
OKs Liability Protections for Drug Makers 19 Dec 2005 Drug manufacturers
are a step closer toward winning the liability protections they say
they need before investing in medicines to combat a bird flu pandemic.
Opponents described the protections, approved early Monday by the House,
as a "massive Christmas bonus to the drug companies."
Consumers seeking damages on claims they were harmed by a vaccine would
have to prove willful misconduct on the part of the drug manufacturers.

Bird-Flu
Bill Slammed as Loophole for Drugmakers 19 Dec 2005 Bird flu
preparedness legislation headed for a final vote in the Senate this
week would create loopholes allowing vaccine makers to avoid legal liability
even if a patient is harmed by negligence, critics said today.

White
House holds bird flu drill with military leaders 10 Dec 2005
Warning an outbreak may be inevitable, the White House on Saturday conducted
a test of its readiness for a feared bird flu pandemic and said federal
agencies fared "quite well" [Yes, they did so well with Hurricane
Katrina, I can hardly wait for their response to a bird flu pandemic.]
without offering any details. Cabinet secretaries, military leaders
and other top officials took part in the four-hour tabletop drill, which
officials said was designed to assess the level of federal preparedness
for a possible outbreak of bird flu or another deadly virus. "This is
about being ready for what inevitably will come," Health and Human Services
Secretary Michael Leavitt said. [How does Leavitt know that a pandemic
is 'inevitable?' Apparently, the Bush bioterror team is ready to attack,
and a full-blown police state is surely on the way.]

Secretive
agency proposed to develop vaccines, drugs
03 Dec 2005 The proposed Biomedical Advanced Research and Development
Agency, or BARDA, would be exempt from long-standing open records and
meetings laws that apply to most government departments, according to
legislation approved Oct. 18 by the Senate health committee. The
agency would be exempt from the Freedom of Information and Federal Advisory
Committee acts, both considered crucial for monitoring government accountability.

God
V Google
--Pope's internet warning 26 Dec 2005 The Pope yesterday
warned against technology and progress becoming a modern god in his
first Christmas message... The Pope - wearing a gold cape and mitre
- also urged humanity to unite against terrorism, poverty and environmental
blight. And he called for a "new world order"
to help fight [foment] poverty.

Homeland
Security poorly managed: audit [Nah... 'ya think?] 29 Dec 2005
Nearly three years after Dictator George W. Bush created the Department
of Homeland Security after the September 11 attacks, the sprawling agency
still faces management problems that were partly to blame for the poor
response to Hurricane Katrina, an internal audit showed.

President
Bush's "Brownie" quote wins award 29 Dec 2005 Call it the wrong
phrase at the wrong time but "Brownie, you're doing a heckuva job" was
named on Thursday as U.S. President [sic] George W. Bush's most memorable
phrase of 2005. The ill-timed praise of a now disgraced agency head
became a national punch line for countless jokes and pointed comments
about the administration's handling of the Hurricane Katrina disaster
and added to the president's reputation for verbal gaffes and clumsy
turns of phrase...

Leave
evolution out of standards, Bush says 28 Dec 2005 Florida Gov.
Jeb Bush said last week he did not think Darwin's theory of evolution
needed to be part of the state's public school science standards, according
to an account in the Miami Herald.

Black
Lawmakers Vow to Repeal Ga. Voter Law --Black Lawmakers Vow
to Repeal Georgia Law Requiring Photo ID to Vote 29 Dec 2005 At
the end of a losing battle during the past legislative session, Georgia
state Rep. Alisha Thomas Morgan burst into the civil rights anthem "Ain't
Gonna Let Nobody Turn Me Around" to protest the passage of a law requiring
voters to show a photo ID at the polls.

Double
dose of snow set to fall 29 Dec 2005 Much of Britain continued
to shiver through sub-zero temperatures as forecasters warned of more
bitterly cold weather and snow on the way.

White
House wants Sahara Desert as new front for war on [of] terror
27 Dec 2005 The U.S. government reportedly plans to spend $500 million
over five years to make the Sahara Desert a vast new front in its war
on [of] terrorism. The operation is called the Trans-Sahara Counter-Terrorism
Initiative, begun in June to provide military expertise, equipment and
'development aid' to nine Saharan countries.

Army
Can't Account For $68 Million In Parts and Tools28 Dec 2005
The Army can't account for $68 million in parts and tools shipped to
contractors for repairs in 2004 because it doesn't demand receipts [?!?],
congressional auditors said Wednesday. "Although the (Defense Department)
policy requires the military services to confirm receipt of all assets
shipped to contractors, the Army is not consistently recording shipment
receipts in its inventory management systems," the Government Accountability
Office said in a 34-page report.

'US
tortures Iraqi prisoners' 28 Dec 2005 A former prisoner held
by the United States military with senior officials of Saddam Hussein's
ousted Iraqi government charged on Wednesday that fellow detainees had
been tortured, some of them to death.

Iraqi
police kill rioting prisoners 28 Dec 2005 Iraqi police have
shot dead several prisoners in a shootout at a Baghdad military base
after one prisoner grabbed a weapon from a guard and opened fire.

Two
Americans Killed in Afghan Attacks 29 Dec 2005 Two soldiers,
an American and an Afghan, were killed and two U.S. service members
were wounded in a roadside bomb attack Wednesday in eastern Afghanistan,
a U.S. military spokesman said.

Marines
in Iraq exempt from fat limits
28 Dec 2005 The U.S. Marines decided the battle of the bulge should
be fought only on U.S. soil and those in Iraq are exempt from the corps'
rigid weight-loss program. [Yeah, I guess it was a bit hypocritical
of the Armed Forces to enforce soldiers' fat limits while simultaneously
carrying out a massive recruitment drive on pizza delivery boxes. See:
Guard
Turns to Pizza, iTunes for Recruiting 26 Dec 2005 --LRP]

U.S.-led
coalition in Iraq continues to shrink--Bulgaria,
Ukraine withdraw; Poland reduces its force 28 Dec 2005 The U.S.-led
international military coalition [occupation] in Iraq shrank further
Tuesday after Bulgaria and Ukraine completed troop withdrawals and Poland
announced it was reducing its contingent by 40 percent while switching
to a noncombat role.

Is
the US State Department still keeping April Glaspie under wraps?
By Kaleem Omar 25 Dec 2005 "It is now more than fifteen years since
that fateful meeting on July 25, 1990 between then-US Ambassador to
Iraq April Glaspie and President Saddam Hussein that the Iraqi leader
interpreted as a green light from Washington for his invasion of Kuwait
eight days later. The US State Department, which is said to have placed
a gag order on Glaspie in August 1990 prohibiting her from talking to
the media about what had transpired at that meeting, is apparently still
keeping her under wraps despite the fact that she retired from the American
Foreign Service in 2002."

NSA
Web site puts 'cookies' on computers 28 Dec 2005 The National
Security Agency's Internet site has been placing files on visitors'
computers that can track their Web surfing activity despite strict federal
rules banning most of them.

Spy
Agency Removes Illegal Tracking Files 29 Dec 2005 The National
Security Agency's Internet site has been placing files on visitors'
computers that can track their Web surfing activity despite strict federal
rules banning most files of that type. The files, known as cookies,
disappeared after a privacy activist complained and The Associated Press
made inquiries this week.

Wiretaps
fail to make dent in terror war; al Qaeda used messengers 26
Dec 2005 U.S. law enforcement sources said that more than four years
of surveillance by the National Security Agency has failed to capture
any high-level al Qaeda operative in the United States. They said al
Qaeda 'insurgents' have long stopped using the phones and even computers
to relay messages. Instead, they employ couriers.

Terrorism
cases in US may be reopened after wiretap scandal 29 Dec 2005
Defence lawyers in several terrorism cases in the United States are
planning to appeal against the convictions of their clients on the ground
that evidence may have been garnered from illegal wiretapping by a federal
government surveillance agency.

Homeland
Security Is Faulted in Audit --Inspector General Points to
FEMA, Cites Mismanagement Among Problems 29 Dec 2005 Nearly three
years after it was formed, the immense Department of Homeland Security
remains hampered by severe management and financial problems that contributed
to the flawed response to Hurricane Katrina, according to an independent
audit released yesterday.

Airport
security uses talk as tactic
28 Dec 2005 The Transportation Security Administration plans to train
screeners at 40 major airports next year to pick out possible terrorists
by engaging travelers in a casual conversation to detect whether a person
appears nervous or evasive and needs extra scrutiny.

Supreme
Court asked to transfer Padilla 28 Dec 2005 The U.S. government
on Wednesday asked the Supreme Court to transfer American "enemy combatant"
Jose Padilla from U.S. military custody to federal authorities in Florida
-- one week after an appeals court refused a similar request.

Bolivian
president-elect takes pay cut
29 Dec 2005 Bolivia's socialist president-elect has announced that he
and his cabinet will take a 50% pay cut so more staff can be hired for
the education and health sectors. Evo Morales, who won the recent presidential
election, said late on Tuesday: "This is a democratic revolution
and we will answer the Bolivian people's call."

Report
Finds Far-Flung Use of 9/11 Loans 29 Dec 2005 The Small Business
Administration allowed special post-9/11 loans to go to Dunkin' Donuts
and Subway franchises and thousands of other businesses nationwide without
ensuring that they had been financially hurt by the attacks, according
to a report released Wednesday by the agency's inspector general.

After
EFF Litigation, Diebold Pulls Out of North Carolina 28 Dec 2005
After a series of lawsuits led by the Electronic Frontier Foundation
(EFF) to defend North Carolina's election integrity laws, controversial
electronic voting machine manufacturer Diebold Election Systems finally
withdrew from the state's voting machine procurement process on last
Thursday.

Ex-Enron
Accountant Pleads Guilty to Fraud 28 Dec 2005 A former top accountant
at Enron Corp. sealed his plea deal with prosecutors Wednesday and became
a key ally for the government in its pursuit of convictions of former
CEOs Kenneth Lay and Jeffrey Skilling — who were granted two extra weeks
to adjust to the setback.

US
west energy crisis settlements at $6.3 bln-FERC 28 Dec 2005
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission said on Wednesday it has helped
work out more than $6.3 billion in settlements related to the [GOP-engendered]
2000-01 energy crisis in California and other western states.

Connecticut
Power Company Gets 22.4 Percent Rate Increase 28 Dec 2005 The
Department of Public Utility Control gave final approval Wednesday to
a 22.4 percent rate increase for Connecticut Light & Power customers...
Attorney General Richard Blumenthal has vowed to fight the increase,
calling it "appalling." [Attorney General Richard
Blumenthal has been fighting tirelessly for Connecticut's citizens
for years. Please encourage him to continue to help us. Telephone: (860)
808-5318; Snail mail: Office of the Attorney General, 55 Elm Street,
Hartford, Connecticut, 06106; Email: attorney.general@po.state.ct.us]